Parliamentary Elections In Poland Research Articles

THE POLITICAL FUNCTION OF PUBLIC FINANCE. THE POLAND EXAMPLE

The article concerns the function of public finance. The authors attempt to provide an answer as to whether, in addition to the classic functions of public finance – the allocative, redistributive and stabilizing functions – one can arrive at a claim that public finance also plays a political function. These reflections are based on the course of 2023 parliamentary elections in Poland and the analysis of election programs presented by the individual political parties. Extracted from the programs were all the promises which could impact the redistribution of public goods and services and would involve their public funding, as well as those which could impact the tax revenues of the state. The analysis leads to the conclusions that the scope of public spending and the degree of fiscalism were one of the main factors encouraging the voters to vote for a particular political party. Since election promises have a major impact on the election results and they can be turned into legal regulations impacting public budgets, the claim concerning the political function of public finance is justified.

Political transformations in Poland: will a change of government lead to a change of course?

The article examines the consequences of the change of the Polish government, headed by the right-wing Euro-skeptical Law and Justice party, which has led this country since October 2015. The article presents an analysis of the results of the parliamentary elections in Poland, held on October 15, 2023, in which the PiS won a formal victory, which, however failed to form a majority coalition. As a result, the ruling alliance, which received the right to form a government, was made up of the pre-election association of the parties Civic Coalition, which included the Civic Platform parties led by former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Modern, the Greens and the Polish Initiative, the Third Way association, which included the parties Poland 2050, the Polish People's Party, the Center for Poland, and the Union the European Democrats, as well as the union of the Left, consisting of the parties New Left and Left together. The assessment of the activities of the leading Polish political parties over the previous four years is given, the main provisions of the election platforms of the main parties and coalitions that were elected to parliament following these elections are analyzed. To identify the dynamics of changes in the political situation in Poland, a comparative analysis of the results of the leading political parties of this country in the elections of 2019 and 2023 was carried out, as well as their main characteristics. The key differences in the approaches of the country's leading parties to the IpR and the Civic Platform on domestic and foreign policy issues, including their attitude to Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, are analyzed. The process of forming a new Polish government and the influence of the country's President Andrzej Duda on it is considered.

Interactive Election Campaigns on Social Media? Flow of Political Information Among Journalists and Politicians as an Element of the Communication Strategy of Political Actors

ABSTRACT This study examined politicians’ communication strategies with journalists in Poland within the context of the flow of information on social media (Facebook and Twitter). The main questions posed in the article concerned which entities used which patterns of information flow, and whether during election campaigns, politicians communicated with journalists on social media by reacting to the latter’s published posts. The study focused on pre-electoral periods of two consecutive parliamentary elections in Poland conducted in 2015 and 2019. The results showed that politicians rarely reacted to journalists’ Twitter posts. If they did, they most often used reactive communication. Additionally, political actors from opposition parties more intensely used information flow patterns with a higher level of interactivity in 2019 than in 2015.

Dilemmas of Political Parallelism: Polish Weekly Opinion Magazines in the Face of the Migration Crisis of 2015

Within the article activity of media broadcasters during the migration crisis of 2015 has been analysed – the crisis whose peak coincided with the period of political campaign preceding the parliamentary elections in Poland. In this context, strong emphasis on issues related to the migration crisis, which had become one of the leading themes of the parliamentary campaign, could have been expected in Polish press market, especially taking into consideration strong political affiliations of weekly opinion magazines existing in the said market at the time. In the presented article, 207 issues of the following opinion weeklies have been analysed: “Newsweek”, “Polityka”, “wSieci” and “Do Rzeczy”, in order to determine the media importance of migration-related themes and of the level of political parallelism of the studied media (political/axiological or party profiling of media releases). The study used the content analysis method with reference to the concept of framing.

Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe wobec Rosji, Ukrainy i Białorusi w latach 2015–2019

Eastern policy is one of the most important areas of Polish foreign policy. It regards the countries (of the former Soviet Union), that do not belong to the Euro-Atlantic structures. In 2015, Law and Justice won the parliamentary elections in Poland. Witold Waszczykowski was assigned as the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was replaced in January 2018 by Jacek Czaputowicz. The aim of the study is to find an answer to the question: what was the attitude of the Polish People’s Party to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in 2015–2019 and what premises influenced its shape? A working hypothesis was adopted: “The Polish People’s Party in 2015–2019 opted for a partnership model of Poland’s relations with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, shaped on the basis of pragmatic premises”. The time limit for the research covered the period from July 17th, 2015 to November 11th, 2019. The analysis of the collected material made possible to answer the question (contained in the introduction to the article), and also confirmed the validity of the adopted working hypothesis. Moreover, it showed that for the Polish People’s Party, matters concerning eastern policy were not the leading thread in the reflection on Polish foreign policy.

Media Visibility Index as a Tool for Measuring the Presence of Political Parties in the Media: Case of Polish Parliamentary Election Campaign in 2019

The problem of media visibility of politicians and political parties is at the heart of the interest of political communication researchers. Theoretical reflections and empirical studies focus on numerous media presence determinants. At the same time, attempts to identify the media visibility of political actors in specific periods, such as the particularly important for democracy period of the election campaign preceding the parliamentary election, are relatively rare. This study is intended to fill that gap. It proposes a simple research tool in the form of a media visibility index, which makes it possible to calculate and compare the visibility of electoral committees in selected media during the election campaign. The tool was used to determine the visibility of electoral committees taking part in the 2019 parliamentary elections in Poland in two TV news services “Wiadomości” and “Fakty”, and three weekly opinion magazines “Newsweek”, “Polityka” and “Sieci”. The data to calculate the index was gathered through manual content analysis of the studied media conducted six weeks before the day of the parliamentary elections.

A Polish Invention or a Copy of the Soviet Model? Electoral Practices during Parliamentary Elections in Poland under the Communist Rule (1944–1980)

One of the main characteristics of the Soviet domination sphere in Europe after the Second World War was the unification of political systems of the countries within the Soviet Union. This paper examines the Soviet impact on the electoral system of the People's Republic of Poland, a country often considered to have been the most unique among the Eastern European states. This article argues that although there were some important differences between the electoral codes in the USSR and communist-led Poland, the effects of the elections in both countries were the same: popular voting could not pose any threat to the power of their communist parties. This resulted from practices – similar in both countries – not included in the electoral law. This leads to the conclusion that the differences between the elections in the Soviet Union and post-war Poland were rather illusory.

Proposing Anti-LGBTQIAP Resolutions at the Municipal Level in Poland: Meeting the Social Demand or Making Use of the Available Resources?

During the eight months preceding the 2019 parliamentary election in Poland, resolutions aimed against the LGBTQIAP minority were adopted by over 60 out of 2,477 municipalities. They were proposed by a local right-wing organization called Ordo Iuris. Based on the prerequisites from the political opportunity structure approach, I test two sets of explanations as to why certain municipalities were targeted by the organization, while others were not. One set of hypotheses is associated with social demand; municipalities chosen by Ordo Iuris are expected to be more religious and supportive of the political right. The other approach assumes that the activity of the organization was determined by the resources available in the community, such as high percentage of members of the local council representing the right-wing Law and Justice party, electoral turnout, membership in religious organizations, and population density. The empirical analysis confirms the significance of resources and disproves the argument associated with social demand. The study has implications for understanding how the social movements of the radical right gain political influence in Eastern European countries. It shows that they do not serve a particular demand from the society for the worldview they represent, but they rather rely on the aid from political elites and the resources provided by them and the community to promote their agenda where they can.

Antagonistic understandings of sovereignty in the 2015 Polish constitutional crisis

Since the 2015 parliamentary elections in Poland, the government led by the Law and Justice party (PiS) has sought to win two interwoven battles: the restoration of ‘a strong state’ internally and ‘regaining sovereignty’ in the country’s relationship with the EU. By examining the 2015 constitutional crisis in Poland, this article seeks to understand how and why a domestic dispute over the nomination of constitutional judges has transformed into a conflict of sovereignty in the EU polity. The paper shows that the claims to sovereignty of political, social, and legal actors reflect opposing conceptions of this principle as well as of democracy and the rule of law. PiS’ understanding of State sovereignty is rooted in the past, echoes its Hobbesian conception, and is reminiscent of Carl Schmitt’s notion of the political and of democracy. In 2015, this conception was pitted against the supremacy of the Constitution (legal sovereignty) and the ideal of shared sovereignty. Drawing on 20 parliamentary debates, this paper shows that the 2015 Polish constitutional crisis encapsulates a conflict of sovereignty over who holds the most legitimate representation of the people and who should have the last word in key political conflicts and constitutional settlements.

Were Elections in the Socialist Countries Elections at All? The Case of Elections to the Sejm in Communist-Ruled Poland

The article presents the current state of research into parliamentary elections in Poland during the period of communist rule. The author outlines the development of the electoral system of the Polish People’s Republic in the 1940s and 50s, and also analyses its singular features in the years when elections to the Sejm were fully controlled by the ruling Polish United Workers’ Party. The final part of the paper is devoted to elections in the 1980s, when this electoral model collapsed, thereby contributing to the disintegration of the communist dictatorship in Poland.

Between the right-wing and the left-wing: the retelling of the Polish systemic transition as a discursive and ideological practice

ABSTRACT In Polish social sciences, after 1989, the interest in ideology has been gradually replaced with research on discursive forms of power. The reception of Foucauldian governmentality studies has resulted in a shift from the Weberian concept of power to understanding power in terms of a practical technology of governing people through symbolic forces of discourse. However, after the 2015 victory of right-wing parties in presidential and parliamentary elections in Poland and the emergence of the second illiberal democracy in the European Union, we witness a revival of the question of ideology as a material-practical tool for shaping people’s sentiments. In recent years, the assessment of the Polish systemic transition which started thirty years ago has been the subject of heated ideological debates. The Polish transformation has been retold and its leadership and outcomes re-evaluated from different standpoints. The comparative analysis of public statements that give contradictory assessments of the Polish transition presented in this article examines the relationship between discursive and ideological practices, and the possible linkages between post-Foucauldian analysis and the critique of ideology.

Security in cyberspace in state documents and political party programmes: parliamentary elections in Poland in 2019

Security in cyberspace is an important element of any state’s policy. The formulation of strategies in this area is the responsibility of state authorities, but it should also be an object of concern for the entire political class, including the opposition. This work is an attempt to review the Polish state documents from the last few years which define threats in cyberspace and present ways of counteracting them. Among them is the Cybersecurity Strategy of the Republic of Poland for 2019–2024. The article is also an attempt to capture the views of parliamentary groupings on cybersecurity and to answer questions such as: How do representatives of the authorities perceive threats in cyberspace, also in the context of the said document? Are representatives of all parliamentary groups involved in the debate on cybersecurity? Were their postulates in this regard included in their political programmes in 2019 parliamentary campaign?

Women’s rights in the light of the programmes of the victorious political parties in Poland’s 2019 parliamentary elections

<p>Problematyka praw kobiet w XXI wieku jest stale obecna w debacie publicznej i znajduje odzwierciedlenie w programach wyborczych poszczególnych partii politycznych. Zarówno po prawej, jak i po lewej stronie sceny politycznej znajdziemy postulaty dotyczące równouprawnienia kobiet i mężczyzn w życiu publicznym, przeciwdziałania dyskryminacji w zatrudnieniu, wsparcia dla rodzin czy należytej opieki zdrowotnej. Analizując programy zwycięskich partii politycznych w wyborach parlamentarnych w 2019 r. w Polsce, należy stwierdzić, że większość z nich podjęła tzw. problematykę kobiecą. Kwestie te dotyczyły takich zagadnień jak: opieka nad dziećmi, zdrowie kobiet, ale też równa płaca za pracę tej samej wartości bez względu na płeć, równy udział kobiet i mężczyzn we władzach publicznych czy skuteczna walka z przemocą domową.</p>

Media Image of Parliamentary Elections in Poland in 2015

Media Image of Parliamentary Elections in Poland in 2015

Wiedźmy i dziwadła, czyli polska droga do parytetu

The next parliamentary elections in Poland will be held on the basis of the amended elec- toral law. The changes introduced involve a quota system: the ballots are required to provide for at least 35% of women and at least 35% of men. Nearly a hundred years passed from 1918, when Polish women first won voting rights, till the President of Poland signed the so-called parity law. It would not be true, however, to say that this was a century of struggle for the equality of rights of men and women in our country. It was only after 1989 that efficient steps could be taken in this area in Poland. Therefore, the quota system that has been introduced, to be tested in practice soon, is actually the consequence of twenty years of endeavors. The advocates of such a solution consider this to be the first step towards electoral parity. Following the solutions that numerous European countries have introduced, public debate in Poland increasingly more often refers to proposals to ‘spread’ the quota system, and then parity, also to other domains, such as management or education. The opening of a serious debate on these issues will to a large extent depend on the results of the recent quota changes of the electoral law.

Polska prezydencja w Radzie Unii Europejskiej (sukcesy i porażki)

The purpose of this study is to attempt to show the positive and negative, or favorable and unfavorable, preconditions of the Polish presidency and its assessment. The main proposition is that the presidency was an unprecedented event in Polish history and has had a significant social, political, cultural, economic and international impact, while its consequences will continue to be felt for a long time. The Polish presidency, like all EU presidencies, stirred considerable emotions and its outcomes have already produced divergent opinions among experts, researchers and politicians. It is still too early to present an exhaustive and objective assessment of the presidency, but this does not mean that it cannot be analyzed, examined or have conclusions drawn from it. The author tries to present that despite some negative preconditions that did not encourage the Polish presidency, and the absence of any spectacular successes, the assessment of the Polish presidency has been positive, and Poland deserves both credit and distinction for passing such a stern test despite lacking in experience and facing numerous difficulties. The author also tries to show that the Polish presidency was calm and focused on seeking understanding and compromise; and that it was better than the Czech or Hungarian presidencies. It is unfortunate that the global media were relatively uninterested in the Polish leadership of the Council, which was consequently overshadowed by such events as the crisis in the euro zone, the financial and economic tragedy in Greece, the Arab Spring, and the parliamentary elections in Poland and in Russia.

Creating Authoritarian Clientelism: Poland After 2015

Since the 2015 elections, Poland has ‘enjoyed’ the attention of social sciences—political 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.

Preferencje polityczne mieszkańców Galicji zachodniej w wyborach parlamentarnych w Polsce wobec podziału postkomunistycznego

Preferencje polityczne mieszkańców Galicji zachodniej w wyborach parlamentarnych w Polsce wobec podziału postkomunistycznego

Governmental Change and FDI Inflow to Poland and Hungary in 2010-2016

Objective: The purpose of this article is to explain if and how FDI flows have changed due to the most recent parliamentary elections in Poland and Hungary. The shift in governmental policies are said to affect the institutional settings in the host country and hence the willingness of foreign firms to invest. In the study we tried to identify any interdependencies between the FDI inflow and unexpected electoral results. Research Design & Methods: Based on statistical data we applied a cross-country analysis to verify whether the perceived higher investment risk truly undermined the choices of firms. Qualitative analysis and critical discussion drawing on available reports and databases were applied. Findings: Hungary and Poland have recently suffered a drop in the inflow of FDI as revealed by the statistical databases. It is, however, hard to determine whether this decline will continue and to what extent it has been dependent on recent policy changes, particularly in the light of evidence stressing unabating investment attractiveness and new projects coming. Implications & Recommendations: The recent election results in numerous countries suggest an alteration in perceiving the necessity for further international openness and integration. The new nationalism, protectionism and economic patriotism have gained new supporters. Contribution & Value Added: We tried to show the idiosyncrasy of the relationship between institutional election-induced changes in the political landscape and the subsequent modification of attractiveness sentiment leading presumably to changes in actual FDI flows.

Plakaty wyborcze z 1989 roku: fakty i legendy

1989 election posters: facts and legends This article discusses political posters from 1989 parliamentary elections in Poland, used by Solidarity and Polish United Workers’ Party. Although election campaings are widely and thoroughly analysed, posters are rarely a subject to research, with a few exceptions of Polish historians and political scientists. There are two purposes of present analysis: the first is one is to introduce methods such as semiotic, visual culture and narrative semiotic to reveal the structures of meaning and ideologies conveyed by the posters. The second is to reconstruct and interpret various legends that arose around posters from 1989 elections and the symbolic function of the West in Solidarity’s victory.