Poland: The Presidentialization of Parties in a Young Democracy

Abstract

Poland is a semi-presidential and relatively new democracy. It is premier-presidential because the prime minister is responsible only to the legislature, and the president does not have the power to dismiss the government (Elgie, 2011b, p. 2). Although the office maintains a high public profile, the power of the Polish president is quite limited, and most ambitious politicians nowadays set their sights on the prime minister’s office. Therefore, we mainly consider presidentialization in terms of party leaders and the premiership, instead of focusing on the political parties’ strategies to win the presidency. Poland’s oldest major parties date back to the transition from communism, and all prime ministers since 2005 have been provided by parties founded in the 21st Century. This lack of continuity constrains us to concentrate on the four major parties in the current parliament. We draw on a variety of primary sources to examine three areas where the presidentialization phenomenon may occur: election rules, electioneering, and policy and strategy. We find that most of the variations in the behavior and organization of major Polish parties are better explained by their genetic features rather than by the semi-presidential institutional framework. Direct presidential elections could have led to the presidentialization of Polish parties, had the presidency been recognized as an important position for control over the political system and the policy process (Samuels and Shugart, 2010a, p. 15).