Samoorganizacja społeczeństwa polskiego. Zarys historyczny organizacji pozarządowych w Polsce i ich funkcjonowanie do końca XX wieku

Abstract

The article systematizes the issues related to non-governmental organizations in the historical context (20th century) in Poland. The first part of the article concentrates on presenting the definition of a non-governmental organization by introducing the most popular terms and describing the context of nomenclature in the literature of the subject. Then, it shortly presents the basic facts from the interwar period and after 1945 by referring to concrete examples and allegories. The author of the article presents a more in-depth analysis of the 1980s and 1990s, noting that this period has a special influence on the current shape of the third sector in Poland. It is worth to pay attention to the attempts of estimating the number of associations and foundations from the period when the number of nongovernmental organizations and the extent of their functioning had not been yet analyzed in detail. The last part of the article presents a typology of non-governmental organizations that can be easily related to the contemporary structure of the “market” of the third sector entities. Due to limited literature, the article can be an interesting introduction to the topic of the history of non-governmental organizations. It can also create a basis for researching the social activity of Poles in the 20th century.