Populist Drift in Poland

The aim of the present chapter is to analyze the populist drift of governments in Poland. The work describes the course of the processes of deviation from democratic rules in Poland, indicating their sources, scale, diversity, and consequences. It discusses the impact of populist leadership on the dismantling of the rules of a democratic state ruled by law. The chapter discusses the use of political processes and institutions of a democratic state by illiberal populists with the intent to dismantle democracy. It is an attempt to answer the question of how the attack on the institutions of a democratic state ruled by law was explained by populists and influenced the policy-making processes. The authors will try to explain whether the attack on the pillars of democracy in Poland results from populism or from ideological political goals. To this end, they will look for an answer to the question of whether, under the rule of Polish illiberal populists, it was possible to institutionally limit their activities. The chapter uses a neo-institutional method. The theory of social constitutionalism was used to explain the lack of public resistance to changes in the judiciary. The basis for the formulation of the section on research findings are the results of the analysis of legal acts, strategic documents, and institutional solutions implemented during the populist rule. The final section contains the conclusions of the considerations presented in the text and specifies the fields for further exploration of the research processes analyzed in this chapter.