Strengthening Social Democracy in the Visegrad Countries Poland ’ s Political Left : Is There Life Beyond Parliament ? (original) (raw)
Social Democracy in the 21st Century (Comparative Social Research, Vol. 35), 2021
It is often said that we live in a time of crisis for social democracy. Many of the West European centre-left parties that seemed the natural parties of government in the second half of the twentieth century, are in decline. The most common long-term explanations centre on a shrinking working class, a widening gap between the party elite and their core voters, and the challenges from new populist parties and/or greens. Short-term policy factors include the failure to address the recent financial and refugee crises. None of these factors carry much explanatory weight for developments in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the three decades since the transition from communism. We find that much of the explanation for the rise and the fall of the five social democratic parties in these countries lies in the dynamics of party competition and party system change. All parties face dilemmas of policy, electoral appeal and coalition-building. The Central European cases suggest that it is how social democrats handle such challenges, and make difficult choices about strategy and tactics, that ultimately shapes their long-term fate. Centre-left parties are stronger masters of their fortunes than much of the literature on the decline of social democracy suggests. Consequently, seeking a common structural explanation for the rise and decline of social democratic parties might be a double fallacy: both empirically misleading and a poor base for policy advice.
The Law and Justice Party and Poland's Turn to the Right
Transform Network Report, 2017
It has been over a year since the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) took over complete governmental control in Poland. The presidential election won by Andrzej Duda in May 2015 and the victory of PiS five months later, gave party’s leader Jarosław Kaczyński almost total control of the state. Czesław Kulesza and Gavin Rae analyse the right’s rise to power and describe how the left must take on the difficult task of formulating a coherent alternative to this takeover
The Polish left is in a state of turmoil ahead of the country’s 2015 parliamentary elections
2015
Poland will hold both presidential and parliamentary elections in 2015. Ahead of the elections, Aleks Szczerbiak writes on the parties of the Polish left, who will compete against the two largest parties in Poland, the centrist Civic Platform (PO) and the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS). He notes that following a series of disappointing election results, the Polish left is facing a deep crisis and may need to develop a completely new strategy if it is to challenge the two mainstream parties in 2015.
The State of Democracy in Poland after 2007
Problems of Post-Communism, 2016
While many new EU member states experienced a crisis of democracy in the course of the fiscal and budgetary crisis in Europe, this was not true for Poland: Most citizens held democracy in high esteem and remained enthusiastic about EU membership. However, in 2015 they voted a Euroskeptic government into office that began to dismantle the principle of checks and balances. The article analyzes possible explanations by applying a modernization theory approach. It shows that many Poles developed a utilitarian perception of democracy induced by economic development, but only a minority internalizes post-materialist values and participates in public affairs.
Between Fear and Hope: Poland’s Democratic Lessons for Europe (and Beyond)
European Constitutional Law Review
The European Solidarity Centre in the northern Polish city of Gdańsk is a striking rust-red hull towering over the city's shipyards. Inside, you can sit in a police carrier from the 1980s, giving you some faint sense of what it was like for protesters in Poland struggling against the late-era Communist state under its most repressive period: martial law from December 1981 to July 1983. Footage plays continuously of a protester mown down by one of these hulking vehicles. The message is clear: the society-wide Solidarność (Solidarity) movement, which began with the Communist world's first non-party labour union in Gdańsk's Lenin Shipyard in 1980, was fighting for the most basic freedoms and the hope for a better future, and managed to seemingly cement a true democratic transition after 1989 in the face of stark odds, including (albeit later than neighbouring states) a liberal democratic constitution featuring all the trappings of a European Rechtsstaat: a clear separation of powers; guarantee of full, free, and fair elections; a raft of civil and political rights; and key accountability mechanisms including a German-style constitutional courtthe latter established before the democratic transition, in 1986. Yet, as Wojciech Sadurski's landmark new book recounts, 30 years after 1989 Poland is effectively being run at the whims of one person and his inner circle: Jarosław Kaczyński, who is neither president nor prime minister, but rather head of the ruling Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość; PiS is the Polish acronym). Kaczyński now wields dominant power in Poland's political system, having achieved a sweeping subversion of the constitutional order since PiS entered government in late 2015, by subordinating accountability institutions
Społeczeństwo i polityka, 2021
Liberal democracy is the fruit of many centuries of evolution based on conflict between various interest groups. This struggle, or conflict, is the source of stability in state institutions, the law and the courts. It is a strange pitfall in which numerous strong entities are capable of enforcing their rights. The condition for a liberal democracy to be stable is therefore the existence of sustainable social stratification, opposing interests and forces among social entities. The destruction of social strata in post-communist states has become entrenched and created a new type of uniformized or groupthink society. The elimination of private ownership perpetuated over several generations, mass resettlements and the degradation of higher strata have created a new type of society devoid of genuine stratification, interest groups capable of engaging in conflict with efficacy. Many generations of evolution, including battles, disputes, perhaps of a revolutionary nature, are required for a sustainable structure of liberal democracy to be instilled in states belonging to the former Soviet bloc.
Roczniki Historii Socjologii, 2019
In this paper, the problem of the variety of liberalisms in the Third Polish Republic is discussed. First, the objective is to determine the versions and degrees of liberalism that emerged in the Polish Parliament after 1989, and the characteristic features that can be attributed to them. The paper distinguishes the following types of liberalism: economic, modest, electoral, and cultural. Within each of them, some main characteristics are found to be decisive for labelling a political party according to the aforementioned scheme regarding the analysis of the political thought. The analysis is accomplished by drawing upon Szacki’s idea of the liberal minimum, as well as referring to the rights and liberty of individuals.
The EU in Political Thought and Practice of the Rulling Right Wing in Poland
2019
In this article I present the views of the right wing ruling in Poland since 2015 on issues related to European integration and the European Union. I pay special attention to the largest party of so-called Zjednoczona Prawica (United Right), that is Jarosław Kaczyński’s political group Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice), its programme and actions and statements of party politicians. The analysis of the programme, declarations and actions of party politicians allows us to notice Eurosceptic tendencies that are the expression of so-called realism in international relations. The theory that perceives nation states as the most important actors of international politics reduces the importance of such entities as the European Union. The PiS looks at the EU through the prism of national interests and raison d’etat. The EU’s value has been reduced to its usefulness in advancing these interests. For the sake of comparison, I also refer to the programme of a smaller coalition party, Porozumienie (Agreement) of Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin, who defines this formation as pro-EU. However, it is a marginal group without influence on the shape of European policy of the United Right.
This paper assesses the origins of parties, their nature, strategies, and success in Poland since the re-registration of parties after new legislation in 1997. It finds that elite actions, mainly through party splits, constitute the main source of new parties in Poland and (almost) the sole source of successful new parties. Many parties proved ephemeral, and many did not undertake any visible political/electoral activity. Others persisted; they campaigned locally or attached themselves to nationally (electorally) successful formations (or both). A few broke through to gain representation in parliament. All successful new parties had nationally recognised leaders and some organisational capacity. Neither factor could assure electoral success.
Poland’s European Policy 2015–2019 in the Perspective of Liberal Intergovernmentalism
"Facta Simonidis", no. 1, 2020
The purpose of this article is to evaluate Poland's European policy during the first term of the Law and Justice party government (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019) in terms of participation in the general debate on the future of the EU. The theoretical background is the liberal intergovernmentalism, and the main thought is the statement that in the analyzed years Poland pursued a policy that did not take into account the basic assumptions of liberal intergovernmentalism treated normatively. The Polish authorities did not present concepts consistent with the internal Polish "community of views", and when selecting partners and negotiating methods, they pursued an ideological policy, focusing on one partner with little potential. Despite these shortcomings, it was possible to maintain the shape of the institutions and procedures dominating in the EU favorable from the point of view of Poland's pragmatically understood interests. Poland's non-confrontational attitude to day-to-day politics also played a positive role here.
Back to the Future: The Resurgence of Poland's Conservative Right
Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 2007
Conservatism has enjoyed a political renaissance in Central Eastern Europe after European Union expansion in 2004. This has been most profound in Poland, where a coalition of conservative-nationalist parties has formed a government. These political developments ...
From Mainstream to Power: The Law and Justice Party in Poland
Pytlas, B. (2021): "From Mainstream to Power: The Law and Justice Party in Poland" in: Decker, F./Henningsen, B./Lewandowsky, M./Adorf, P. (eds.) "Aufstand der Außenseiter. Die Herausforderung der europäischen Politik durch den neuen Populismus". Baden-Baden: Nomos, 401-414
This chapter focuses on core ideological positions of the Law and Justice party in Poland, its tactical accommodation and adjustment of populist and nativist narratives, as well as current dynamics and impact of the party’s repeated shift from mainstream to power. Observing the tactical toolkit of PiS can help us understand how political entrepreneurs can flexibly react to changing contexts of party competition, as well as craft their own opportunities for political mobilisation.
CONTEMPORARY SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES IN POLAND: (2) POLITICAL SCENE AND ELECTORAL BEHAVIOR
13th World Congress of the RSAI. Smart Regions – Opportunities for Su`stainable Development in the Digital Era. Moroccan Section of the Regional Science Association International., 2021
The results of political elections in Europe and the world in the second decade of the 21st century show a clear trend of strengthening populist movements. One of the fundamental root causes is the persistent and even growing differentiation of the socio-economic development level, which results in permanent peripheralisation and marginalisation of some areas. This results in polarization and radicalization of electoral behaviour as a consequence to the unsatisfactory effectiveness of earlier implemented development activities and the economic exclusion of a part of the society living below the social minimum. The results of our study indicate the persistence of development disparities in Poland, despite the relatively positive trends in economic growth at the national level. We draw attention mainly to the strong significance of historical conditions (relict borders). Against this background, we identify the scope and direction of geographical changes in Poles' electoral behaviour. We aim to determine the relationship between the level of socio-economic development and the support of political parties in spatial terms. The final conclusions emphasize the persistence of "territorial underpinnings" and socio-economic conditions of electoral populism in Poland, which to a large extent results from historical factors. Not only has the distribution of populism not been changed as a result of transformation and integration changes in Poland, but it has in fact been reinforced. The research procedure consists of three stages presented on separated presentations: (1) spatial polarization of development, (2) political scene and electoral behaviour, (3) relations between development level and political preferences. This presentation is about stage 2, the purpose of which was to characterize the Polish political scene and the electoral behaviour of Poles. The temporal scope of the analysis covers mainly the years 2005 and 2015. The analysis is conducted at the level of LAU-2 units (gmina), enabling detailed identification of intra-regional disparities. During analysis there were used desk research and indicators of electoral support level noticed in the parliamentary elections in 2005, 2007, 2011, and 2015. The formation of the Polish political scene during the transformation period was dynamic and characterized by the emergence of new antagonisms. In a generalized perspective the Polish political scene can be divided along two axes: conservatism vs. liberalism and individualism vs. communitarianism. Political parties can be further aggregated into two main political camps: "Solidary Poland" – more conservative and ‘Liberal Poland’ – more progressive. The results of the parliamentary elections justify the statement that the Polish political scene is subject to polarization, which in fact brings the party system closer to the bipolar system. The highest concentration of support for the "Solidary Poland" camp was observed in the south-eastern part of the country. On the other hand, the relatively highest support for the "Liberal Poland" camp was in north-western Poland. This study is carried out as part of the FORSED research project (www.forsed.amu.edu.pl) funded by the National Science Centre (No. 2015/19/B/HS5/00012): New challenges of regional policy in shaping socio-economic development factors of less developed regions.
The state of social democratic parties in Central and Eastern Europe
This study presents the apparent similarities and differences in the region through case studies and a comparison of social democratic parties in seven Central and Eastern European countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia). Our study covers the leading social democratic party of each country under review. These parties define themselves as social democratic, and in the family of European political parties also align themselves with the social democrats. While in the specific case studies we will take a brief look at radical left, green and liberal rivals, these parties will not be in the focus of the study. In the first chapter we present the major trends characterizing the social democratic parties of Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to performance at the polls and government experience, we take a close look at their respective value systems, voters and political rivals. In the second half of the study, we present the achievements, declared values, electoral composition and political challengers of the major social democratic parties in the seven countries under review.
Creating Authoritarian Clientelism: Poland After 2015
Hague Journal on the Rule of Law
Since the 2015 elections, Poland has 'enjoyed' the attention of social sciencespolitical science in particular-to an extent greater than at any time since the period of "Solidarity" in the early 1980s. In contrast to that period, Poland's idiosyncratic development over the last two and a half years can hardly be said to play the function of a normative role model. Political developments in Poland in recent times devolve into two stories: one of profound civilizational, economic and social development prior to the 2015 elections; the other of an unexpected and sudden shift toward the dismantling of the liberal democratic system after the Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power in late 2015. The first part of this article describes the most important features of pre-2015 political developments in Poland and identifies key determinants of vote choice in the 2015 parliamentary election in Poland. In brief, this analysis shows two things: that there was no 'demand' for systemic change at these elections, and that support for the winning party was mainly determined by socio-cultural factors rather than economic ones. The second part of the article aims to answer the question of why the PiS government has embarked on a course of political action that violates both the abstract principles of liberal democracy and concrete, binding provisions of Poland's 1997 Constitution. Several theoretical and speculative ideas are offered in answer to this question.
Separation or divorce? The popular class and social democracy in Poland
FEPS Policy Study, 2024
For more than two decades, we have been observing a continuous phenomenon in Poland, with the popular class moving away from social democracy. Among workers, farmers, and those with less education, the New Left (NL, Nowa Lewica) is losing not only significantly to Law and Justice (PiS, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) but also to all other political parties. For the policy study, we conducted a Focus Group Interview (FGI), during which we surveyed representatives of the popular class from rural areas, small towns, medium-sized and larger towns, and those voters who once voted for the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD, Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej) and Aleksander Kwaśniewski. We investigated what they think about social democracy and what associations they have with center-left politicians in Poland. In addition, already after the parliamentary elections in Poland, which took place on October 15, 2023, we used the same method to survey current NL voters from Warsaw and Wloclawek and former SLD voters from Jelenia Gora. We asked about their electoral motivations and demotivations. Juxtaposing these groups of respondents allowed us to capture a lasting difference in the electoral profile of Polish progressives and representatives of the popular class. Our analysis can provide a basis for a further critical look at the challenges the center-left faces in Poland and across Europe.