Samorządna Rzeczpospolita – samorządna wyspa na niedemokratycznym oceanie. Koncepcje samoorganizacji społecznej w czasach pierwszej „Solidarności”

In the times of the “First Solidarity” (1980–1981), the idea of self-government was one of thekey fragments of the socio-political system change concept. The specific connection of thebottom-up activity of the working class with the activity of the political and intellectual elitesresulted in the appearance of numerous, different models and solutions, the culmination ofwhich was the concept of “Self-governing Republic”. The central category and basic way of itsrealization was in the mechanism of self-organization of the society, and its purpose was todemocratize the political system. The change of the political situation, started by introducingthe martial law caused the slow abandonment of the earlier suggested solutions. Among thecriticism directed towards the “Self-governing Republic” there were the accusations of itsutopianism and uselessness. The concept that seemed revelatory in its time, turned out to beuseless in the new reality, but its creator ideas survived.Key words: Self-governing Republic, NSZZ Solidarity, concepts of the governmentself-organization, utopia