ABSTRACT

The citizens of East European countries have not been accustomed to making independent political, social and economic choices and having to abide by the consequences of the choices they make. Furthermore, in the former Communist regimes there was a tradition of writing to ‘Letters Bureaux’ about all forms of complaint about the activities of the State. However, these letters, although very large in number, had little effect.16 The Polish Ombudsman commented in 1988 that these Letters Bureaux ‘have no authority and their operation is limited to sending the letters to those accused of fault. A complaint has, thus, become trivial, lost its power both with the author and the

recipient. Therefore the Ombudsman is expected to react more rapidly ...’).17 In a lecture delivered in 1990, Professor Letowska described Polish society as being ‘paternalistically demoralised.’18 Hence, ‘one should not wonder that the representatives of the paternalistically demoralised society are deaf to the argument, ‘law does not allow’ as not the law is important but one’s own interests ...’.19 She started with a very high level of public esteem; only the judges and the Solidarity union were held in higher public regard than the Commissioner, according to an opinion poll taken in 1988.20 In consequence, the Commissioner receives a very wide range of complaints about such matters as the government’s economic policy, the spoiliation of the environment, land reform and housing policy, over which she has no power to intervene.21 However, such experiences are not uncommon among Ombudsmen in the West.22