Poland’s Promise
The College of Europe in Belgium, Poland, and now Albania points to core principles of multilevel governance
With Miroslaw Manicki
Even though the idea of Europe as a conglomeration of nations in accord with one another dates to the 18th century, the name associated with the region, Europe or Europa — a pre-Greek princess of Tyre — dates to Mycenean and even early Semitic origin as “the region of the setting sun” (OED, 2023).
The European Union is different from other world organizations. It represents political collaboration in a new and different sense. Where most nation states are unitary, Europe represents a collective of regimes. There is flex to Europe, which represents complex networks of interests.
When the European concept was coming together in 1947, an academic institution, the College of Europe, was established to provide professional staff and leadership, also to provide for research and education in concepts of cooperation and collaborative governance.
The point is in understanding prospects for cooperation. In 1992, another campus of the College of Europe was opened up in Warsaw, Poland. Clearly, part of the motivation was to incorporate elements of Poland’s success in cultural development throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Establishment of the COE location predated Poland’s ascension into the EU by two years.
COE has committed to establishing a campus in Albania, a similar move — but perhaps with an opposite tack (Sorgi, 2023). The question for EU ascension is collaboration and cooperation as a member state, with challenges in bringing Southeastern European countries into the EU (Editors, 2022).
Poland and positivism
EU leaders have been right to look to Poland for leadership and ideas. It is about time that Poland be in position to deliver on its vaunted past. Poland isn’t the same as any other place. A combination of factors has resulted over very many years in a culture and a perspective that is unique in the world. This had famous implications with the development of Solidarity in the early 1980s, the unique Polish approach to public and private affairs dating to the era of Polish positivism in the 19th century (Blejwas, 1984).
In the nineteenth century, Poland was partitioned by its neighbors; there was no state of Poland. The people’s reaction to this reflected the stoicism and determination of the Polish people; they committed their efforts to improvement. Inspired by the writings of Herbert Spencer and others, they entered into a large-scale program of positivism.
They focused on improvement using the phrase “organic work”, which involved growth and improvement in all conceivable directions. This is characterized as different than the efforts of declared socialists at the time — who were obsessed with more traditional geopolitical concerns.
The socialists viewed history as a class conflict, a view that directly challenged the positivists’ concept of society as a harmoniously functioning organism. The socialists’ dissatisfaction with the existing social order was so great that they rejected the “legal means” venerated by the positivists as the method of socioeconomic transformation, in favor of “social revolution” (Blejwas, 1984, 151).
Proponents of hard-core geopolitics do not like the European Union. According to their frame of reference, the European adventure in cooperation cannot succeed — real estate is everything; protecting turf is as important as dominating over it (Friedman, 2010).
It may be that realpolitik devotees are afraid that cooperation could work, peace might break out, and they would be out of a job. Today, the drumbeat has to do with China and the United States. Geopoliticians insist that war between the two is inevitable because, as documented by the historian Thucydides, Sparta went to war against Athens (Thucydides et al., 1998).
The logic is as follows: One state is rich and powerful. Another state becomes wealthy and powerful. The contender state, the new state must attack the other, violently and conclusively.
This rubric is presented, breathtakingly, with virtually no support. What could be more important in our crowded, loosely coupled world, but few efforts have been documented. For one thing, the question is laid captive to modernity — despite Thucydides’ early reporting.
Science dictates that we engage in a search for data. If there is no data, scientific findings cannot be obtained. What data might be available to consider such a proposition? In one sense, the question could apply to small cultures, tribes, and indigenous peoples, of which there have been and continue to be many. There are considerable selection challenges in this, as documented histories are difficult to find in comparable forms.
Also, probably more germane to our question, what data can be obtained for evaluation at the level of the state? We make the case elsewhere for over twenty examples (Tingey and Manicki, 2023).
Can it be said that a state in a historical sense is equivalent to contemporary regimes? There is much to be gained if we can do so. According to emerging data on ancient regimes and consolidated histories, coherent, organized, meritorious civilizations have existed all around the world and many existing cultures represent important elements of these. Significant historians bearing this message include Arnold Toynbee (1934/1936/1939), Max Weber (1927/2003), Fernand Braudel (1987/1993), and Karl Polanyi (1944/1957/2001; Polanyi, Arensberg, and Pearson, 1957). We refer to many of these in the “Careful Society” book. Most particularly, we have written about this under the rubric “society(n)” (Tingey and Manicki, 2017a and 2017b).
Focusing on military conditions and preferences alone shortchanges the analysis; many factors impinge on the character and sustainability of a culture or society. Alfred Tönnies’ comparison of cultures (Gemeinschaft) and societies (Gesellschaft) is of central importance to such a study (1887/1935). We consider this elsewhere as well under the rubric of “society(n)”, representing prospects for governance amid multiple societies, cultures, religions, and ethnic connections (Tingey and Manicki, 2017a, 2017b).
There are many challenges. The colonial nature of many European countries represented anything but cooperation. Wounds of manifold kinds from the world wars mitigated against mutuality. The conventional statehood model inherited from the Greeks assumes more or less 1:1 correspondence between ethnicities and states.
The best that has been expected over time is represented by the American concept of a “melting pot”, where people from many cultures work out a kind of legal and cultural rapprochement that represents something of an averaging out of interests and traditions. That hasn’t been shown to work — not even as it seems in the United States, where people are increasingly assertive as to their individualized and particular rights and responsibilities.
The promise of multilevel, multidimensional governance amid complexity
What has resulted from multidimensional governance is a kind of striation of interests and cultures. Not to put too fine a point on it, the result has been a kind of apartheid in many countries, where interests of one party or collective are imposed on others.
Part of the problem is complexity. From a governance standpoint, it is very difficult to coordinate knowledge and authority. The Brits famously complained about the famous 80,000 pages of rules that some said the EU was forcing on them. This is weird; nobody complains about the quantity of notes in a great symphony or opera — except the theatrical depiction of Emperor Joseph in the movie Amadeus about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Emperor was a competent musician and an irrefutable support of the performance arts. According to the cinematic version of the story, after witnessing the opera, he reportedly said to Mozart:
My dear young man, don’t take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It’s quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that’s all.
Emperor Joseph II (Forman, 1983)
The opera in question was K. 384, The Abduction from the Seraglio; also known as Il Seraglio. The complexity of Mozart’s work also noted by Goethe also plays a role in a well-known version of the story as it appeared in the early (1798) biography of Mozart by Franz Xaver Niemetschek. As printed in Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes, a reference work, the story is told like this:
The Emperor Joseph II commissioned the creation of The Abduction from the Seraglio, but when he heard it, he complained to Mozart, “That is too fine for my ears — there are too many notes.” Mozart replied, “There are just as many notes as there should be.” (Bernard and Fadiman, 2000)
Below can be seen a segment of notes from this composition. Indeed, there is a lot going on. Can you figure it out? Of course, it is nice to be able to recreate and to absorb such work, something else entirely to conceive it.
The authenticity of this story is not accepted by all scholars. Moreover, the version given by the Bartlett reference (and many other places) includes a translation of the original German that is dubious. The original reads as follows:
Zu schön für unsere Ohren, und gewaltig viel Noten, lieber Mozart! “Too many notes” is not a plausible translation of the German phrase “gewaltig viel Noten”. Mautner, translating Niemetschek, renders this as “an extraordinary number of notes”, while Branscombe translates it simply as “very many notes”. The anecdote, which is often repeated, is considered by some scholars to unfairly give the Emperor a bad reputation concerning both his musical abilities and his appreciation and support of Mozart (Bernard and Fadiman, 2000).
How good was it? As to one ranking, it is rated as 89th in the world. That is pretty good — certainly not a failure. Four Mozart operas are rated higher. He wrote the third most successful opera of them all by this measure — Don Giovanni, the fifth — The Marriage of Figaro, the fifteenth — The Magic Flute, and the thirty-second — Cosi Fan Tutte (Brian, 2017).
It isn’t that the emperor was not sophisticated at an important level. The point was that among composers, Mozart was a giant, while the composers surrounding the emperor were competent, but not great. The point of the movie Amadeus was that Antonio Salieri knew. He knew that Mozart was great. He was not capable for various reasons of supporting him as such. He was jealous; he became a heretic. He purposefully damned himself over the question, challenging God and fate.
The people deserve great — no matter the subject area and the issues in question. In music, they ultimately have a choice; they do not in all areas.
How many great composers have there been out of thousands of composers and musicians over the last several centuries? There have been many competent, but only a few great ones. The best orchestras and operas, whose works do they perform? That of the masters. That is what people want to hear.
The same is true of popular and folk music. The regular stuff is fine, but people make big commitments and sacrifices to heat the best. Stadiums fill up with listeners to witness their work — it creates an important bond, and it meets the peoples’ needs.
Why numbers matter
The point is to not impose supposed solutions onto problems. Problems in all their glory and complexity impose themselves on any imagined solution whether we like it or not. Otherwise, a kind of insanity reigns. The Polish philosopher Alfred Korzybski rather supports the idea that “unsanity” reigns to a good degree in such matters (Korzybski, 1921).
This is not an uncommon tactic — to water down or even to misrepresent the essence of processes. In social network analysis, one of the greatest tasks is to identify the “Mozart’s” whose talents and gifts are otherwise shielded by “Salieri’s”, who have every incentive to front the efforts of their superiors, at least as it has to do with composition.
What would music be like without this great capability to arrive at quality? It would likely be similar to what health is like, or challenges felt by people to feed themselves, to protect themselves, to enjoy complete and fulfilling lives. There, it is the ‘gatekeepers’ who hold sway — the Salieri's — not the people with optimal, beneficial answers, the Mozart’s.
The G20 plan
There are three effective global considerations for capacity development among experts and authorities around the world. One is North America, with the United States in the lead. Second is Europe, considering the needs of countries to the east and to the south. Third is East Asia, China and the myriad of countries and cultures of the East, extending to the South and to the Pacific. These can be seen below.
With the object of establishing global outreach, encouraging fluidity in knowledge and authority generally, we published the following Policy Brief with G20 Bali, Indonesia last year. This is a ‘head, hand, heart approach, which is described to a degree therein.
Multilevel governance is cooperative governance. There are both conceptual spaces to be considered and physical spaces. If we continue to insist on physical space to be dominant, we will continue to stutter and suffer.
References
Bernard, A., and Fadiman, C. 2000. Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes. Boston: Little, Brown, 339.
Blejwas, S. A. 1984. Realism in Polish politics: Warsaw positivism and national survival in nineteenth century Poland. New Haven CT: Yale Concilium on International and Area Studies.
Braudel, F. 1987/1993. A history of civilizations. New York: Penguin Books
Brian, (Ed.). 2017. 100 greatest operas: Operas ranked for their innovation and influence, their aesthetic importance, historical significance and lasting popularity. https://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best-classic-opera.html
Burgess, N., and Rowe, E. 2023, April 21. Why social networks are vital for
continuous improvement. Warwick Business School. https://www.wbs.ac.uk/news/why-social-networks-are-vital-for-continuous-improvement/
Editors. 2022, December 12. Agreement reached in principle for College of Europe to open Tirana campus, a ‘historic’ development for Albania’s EU outlook. Tirana Observatory. https://tiranaobservatory.com/2022/12/12/agreement-reached-in-principle-for-college-of-europe-to-open-tirana-campus-a-historic-development-for-albanias-eu-outlook/
Forman, Milos. 1984. Amadeus. United States: Orion Pictures.
Friedman, G. 2010. The next 100 years: A forecast for the 21st century. Palatine, IL: Anchor.
Hampe, M. Walton, C. (Tran.). 2016. “Too many notes …”. In M. Hampe, 2016, The crafty art of opera. Cambridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer. Published online by Cambridge University Press, 2017, 25 October. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/the-crafty-art-of-opera/8FE8BD2B0A36B2885EBA51FCC9EAE2E9
Korzybski, A. 1921. Manhood of humanity: The science and art of human engineering. New York: E.P. Dutton.
Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. 2023, July. “Europe, n., Etymology”. https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7601777916
Polanyi, K. 1944/1957/2001. The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Boston: Beacon Press.
Polanyi, K., Arensberg, C. M., and Pearson, H. W. 1957 Trade and market in the early empires: Economies in history and theory. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, The Falcon’s Wing Press.
Sorgi, G. 2023. College of Europe to open new campus in Albania. Politico. https://www.politico.eu/article/college-of-europe-new-campus-albania/
Thucydides, Strassler, R. B. (Ed.), Crawley, R. (Tran.). 1998. The landmark Thucydides: A comprehensive guide to the Peloponnesian War. New York: The Free Press/Touchstone.
Tingey, K. B., and Manicki, M. 2023. The careful society: The untethered economy. Logan, UT USA/Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland: Fluidity Finance. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL7MBHZ
Tingey, K. B., and Manicki, M. 2017a (Eds.). Society(n) handbook: What we deserve, vol. 1. Logan, UT USA/Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland: Fluidity Finance. https://www.amazon.com/dp/197813178X
Tingey, K. B., and Manicki, M. (Eds.). 2017b. Society(n) handbook: What we deserve, vol. 2. Logan, UT USA/Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland: Fluidity Finance. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1978249454
Tönnies, F. 1887. Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft. Leipzig: Fues’s Verlag. An English translation of the 8th edition 1935 by Charles P. Loomis appeared in 1940 as Fundamental Concepts of Sociology (Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft). New York: American Book Company.
Toynbee, A. F. 1934/1936/1939. A study of history, Vols. i-vii. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Weber, M., and Knight, F. H. (Tran.). 1927/2003. General economic history. Mineola, NY: Dover Publishers, Inc.