This is an abridged version of a lecture which Professor Edward Tarnawski gave at the Department of Journalism and Political Science, University of Warsaw, on October 24, 2001. The author is a Professor of Political Science and Administration at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya in Barcelona. Adopting a historical perspective, Edward Tarnawski points out a number of similarities between the Polish and Spanish political scenes and the approaches of individual politicians. He argues that studying Spanish political ideas may help to understand the peculiarities of contemporary Polish politics. Tarnawski also refers to José Ortega y Gasset to try to understand how to interpret the characteristic phenomena of the Polish systemic transformation in terms of Ortega’s definition of politics and politicking.