Did you know that Poland was the 1st country in Europe and the 2nd country in the world to have a constitution?
The Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility (szlachta) and placed the peasants under the protection of the government,[4] thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. The Constitution abolished pernicious parliamentary institutions such as the liberum veto, which at one time had put the sejm at the mercy of any deputy who might choose, or be bribed by an interest or foreign power, to undo legislation passed by that sejm. The Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's magnates with a more democratic constitutional monarchy.[5] The document was translated into Lithuanian.[6]
Russia, Prussia and Austria were threatened by this political liberalization and jointly invaded, forcing Poland to retract the constitution. Some lose their constitution through invasions, others permit their politicians to slowly erode it. How sad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_May_3,_1791
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