Liberal Democratic Standards Are Not Just an Opinion – Karolina Wigura on Polish Politics, Liberal Emotions, and Her Major Concerns

In the latest episode of our Democracy After 2024 series, Karolina Wigura discusses Poland’s currentrole in Europe and the changing polarization between liberal and illiberal forces; analyzes the role of emotions in contemporary liberal politics; reflects on how we distinguish between agendas of accountability, onthe one hand, and of retribution and revenge, on the other; and explains what she will watch particularly closely in the coming months.

Karolina Wigura is a historian of ideas, sociologist, and journalist. She is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Liberal Modernity in Berlin and a member of the Board of the Kultura Liberalna Foundation in Warsaw. She is alecturer at the Institute of Sociology at Warsaw University and a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. In her research, Karolina Wigura focuses on the political philosophy of the 20th century, on emotions in politics as well as on the sociology and ethics of memory and, more particularly, on questions of transitional justice, historical guilt, and reconciliation.