Reinforcement of executive power during the COVID -19 epidemic, a salient trend or temporary phenomenon related to pandemic control

Abstract

The article is devoted to presenting the results of research on Polish legislation during the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of empowerment of public authority.The impact of the adopted laws on empowerment was assessed using an innovative research method based on the assumption that the creation of universally binding laws is based on long-term trends, and the law - like any other product - is driven by the law of supply and demand. The tendency for one or another legal intervention in social or economic relations can be seen in the periodic increase or decrease of legislative initiatives.We can talk about the strengthening of power when the adopted regulations serve the interests of public power, its better organization and strengthening of its potential. Most often, this is combined with the restriction of other authorities and the expansion of the interference of state power in social relations and citizens' rights.The article presents all the laws whose declared purpose was to combat the COVID-19 epidemic and its social and economic consequences and in which, in the process of evaluation, the occurrence of regulations strengthening public power was found (positive evaluation +1 and above).The graphs show how the adoption of power-enhancing and power-limiting regulations, respectively, has evolved since 1990, what this trend looked like in 2020, and finally how strong the power enhancement was in the so-called Covidovy laws.