ПОЛЬСКИЕ ПАРЛАМЕНТСКИЕ ВЫБОРЫ – 2015; 2019: ВОЗМОЖНЫЕ ОБЪЯСНЕНИЯ УСПЕХА АВТОРИТАРНОГО ПОПУЛИЗМА «ПРАВА И СПРАВЕДЛИВОСТИ»

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to consider the victory of the right-wing populist party Law and Justice (PiS) (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc) in the parliamentary elections of 2015 and 2019. There were analyzed the course, specifics and result of these elections. The possible reasons for the growth of popularity and, consequently, the electoral success of PiS and the fall in support of its main competitor Civic Platform (PO) (Platforma Obywatelska) are given. Then to study a number of possible reasons, explanations that allowed the PiS to come to authoritarian populism, and voters consciously consider the authoritarian-populist party as the ruling one. These are explanations from the point of view of internal party organization, political economy, political sociology, history (the track of dependence), the concept of authoritarian clientism, neo-authoritarianism or authoritarian populism. In the key of this concept, general considerations about the magnitude of the conceptual stretch of labeling PiS as a classic example of right-wing European populism are described, alternative views on the ideological essence of PiS are given. The conclusion also identifies and analyzes the most striking features of the political line of the PiS, the deep foundations and underlying reasons for its orientation and legitimacy, and the main psychosocial and image strategies that generally form a positive image of the PiS in the eyes of its voters.