Idee federalistyczne w pracach Stanisława Leszczyńskiego w kontekście pacyfistyczno-federacyjnej myśli oświeceniowej

Abstrakt: At the end of 17th and the beginning of 18th century, several renown and much discussed projects were created. Stanisław Leszczyński criticized the idea of a “Christian Republic” which laid at the base of all those projects. According to Leszczyński, a federation formed in accordance with this idea was not viable as the relations between the states forming it would be dominated by hatred. What is more, Leszczyński doubted the possibility of forming of any kind of European federation. His federal idea was based on utterly different foundations than the Western European ideas. His federation would consist of republican states, England, Holland, Poland and Switzerland and would be united under the aegis of the French monarchy. Thanks to such a structure of the federation of European republics united under the reign of France, the fate of Europe would rest in the hands of Louis XV of France. Compared with contemporary federal ideas, Leszczyński’s simple eclecticism was anachronic and inconsistent. But we must bear in mind that the Polish federal thought of the 18th century was quite poor. The grand ideas of federal Europe did not find many supporters in Poland. Perhaps the decisive reason was the knowledge of practical implementation of multi-state federalism.