On May 12, 2011 the Polish Institute in Bratislava in cooperation with the Institute for Public Affairs had organized panel discussion on theme “Are we threatened by crisis of public trust?“ The main guest was a Polish expert Jan Lityński, former dissident, civic activist and the Memeber of Parliament and currently also advisor to the President of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski. The other speakers were Oľga Gyárfášová and Martin Bútora from the Institute for Public Affairs.

The experts devoted their contributions to the issue of public trust in politicians, and to the question of participation of citizens in public life. They pointed out the similarities and differences of the social and political development in Poland and Slovakia since 1990.

In the following vivid discussion, they spoke about influence of media on the credibility of politicians, about the electoral rules in Slovakia and in Poland, the NGOs in both countries, different perceptions of national policies and local policies, about public scrutiny and about the forthcoming parliamentary election in Poland.


Oľga Gyárfášová, Martin Bútora and Jan Lityński made their contributions.

The profile of Jan Lityński is available on the official website of the website of the President of the Republic of Poland.