A New Social Contract for a Divided Society. What Europe Can Learn from Poland.
PanelInternational Congress of Polish Student Societies, Milano, Italy
28/02/2026
Moderator dr. MAGDALENA M. BARAN
Speaker Prof. ADAM CZARNOTA
Speaker LESZEK STYPUŁKOWSKI
Let’s Agree on Poland: A Case Study of Constitutional Design (Oxford University Press, 2025) — a Polish constitutional bestseller, now available in English – addresses the issue of the social contract, looking at it from many perspectives, giving voice to representatives of various backgrounds and ideological circles. This approach and the adopted research method allow for finding agreement beyond divisions, for building a detailed vision of a new social contract that can be established within a divided society and is beneficial for its common functioning. Rather than striving for unattainable consensus on values, the book proposes institutions that enable cooperation across divides: robust decentralization, checks and balances that prevent domination, and fair procedures that guarantee mutual recognition. The volume itself is the outcome of a remarkable collaboration between progressives and conservatives, working together within the Social Contract Incubator, a network of 130 leading Polish intellectuals known by its Polish acronym IUS. Their joint work allows us to see how much Europe can learn today, thanks to the example of cooperation, and how much it can draw from the developed model of a new social contract.

