Illiberal Democracy or Populist Authoritarianism?

Abstract

Abstract Poland’s constitutional breakdown of 2015 constitutes an interesting, if unfortunate, case study of the relationship between populism and democracy, and the related concept of ‘illiberal democracy’. Without generalizing this finding, the chapter argues that in Poland, illiberal democracy is largely an oxymoron. By dismantling various checks and balances, and the many democratic institutions related to elections and judicial review, the ruling party greatly weakens the democratic character of the state. The temptation to consider Poland as a case of ‘political constitutionalism’, in contrast to ‘legal constitutionalism’, should be resisted. The chapter considers how Poland lacks many of the democratic prerequisites critical for ‘political constitutionalism’. The Polish variant of populism is aggressively anti-pluralistic, anti-deliberative, and hostile to minorities. The system can be better described as that of ‘plebiscitarian authoritarianism’. It is also antithetical to the ideal of the rule of law, in particular in its disregard for the various unwritten clauses (constitutional conventions) supplementing the constitutional text.