Nauka w czasach biurokracji

Abstract

This chapter is on the detrimental impact of bureaucracy on science in Poland. After general considerations, concerning the nature of this phenomenon and its development in Western civilization, several bureaucracy-induced problems, the specifics of scientific functioning, are identified, viz.: the quan-tophrenia in the evaluation of scientific achievements, the overgrowth of the system of individual research grants, and a corruptiogenic system of remuneration in academic institutions. The negative impact of those factors on the productivity of research in sciences and humanities is demonstrated, as well as on the condition of related academic milieus. In particular, the mechanisms of the destructive impact of those factors on the academic ethos are disclosed. Although no remedies are explicitly proposed, preferred solutions may be inferred from the presented analysis of the Polish implementation of the academic capitalism imported from the United States without regard to the historical, cultural and social context.