The evolution of the presidential role in Poland’s political system since 1989

The evolution of the presidential role in Poland’s political system since 1989


Putintsev I.S.,

MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, isp90@mail.ru


elibrary_id: 616465 | ORCID: 0000-0002-2576-4467 | RESEARCHER_ID: AAT-1997-2021

Article received: 2022.09.28. Accepted: 2023.01.16


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2023.02.11
EDN: BODIFQ

Rubric: Orbis terrarum

For citation:

Putintsev I.S. The evolution of the presidential role in Poland’s political system since 1989. – Polis. Political Studies. 2023. No. 2. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2023.02.11. EDN: BODIFQ



Abstract

This article deals with the evolution of the presidential role in the Polish political system. Poland has a specific form of government that cannot be defined as semi-presidential or purely parliamentary. That creates uncertainty, enhancing the impact of situational factors and political practice. The principal goal of this research is to rank the Polish presidents according to their power and political influence with the use of specific criteria and to detect the dominant tendency. One of the aims of this article is to summarize the opinions on the Polish type of government, to analyze the legal base that defined the presidential role in different periods and identify the political conditions that influenced its evolution, to research the interaction of presidents with other state institutions and parties, to reveal the hierarchy of this interaction and the most important precedents, to evaluate the president’s influence in different spheres, including foreign policy. This article has a chronological structure. The activities of the six heads of state are considered not in general but in how they influenced the evolution of president’s institutional role. The main conclusion of this work is that the influence of the president in Poland has significantly fallen over the last 15-20 years. The ranking based on the author’s criteria has proven this conclusion. With the exception of the veto and certain appointment powers, the president has few effective mechanisms to exert power. The political practice has also developed in his disfavour: the head of state has little influence on parties and paradoxically commands less political authority if he or she belongs to the same political camp as the cabinet and parliamentary majority. The president plays a less important role than the ruling party’s leader and the prime minister, though his/her role is not ceremonial.

Keywords
Poland, president, semi-presidentialism, parliamentarism, Jaruzelski, Wałęsa, Kwaśniewski, Kaczyński, Komorowski, Duda.

 Full Text
References

Baylis, T.A. (1996). Presidents versus prime ministers: shaping executive authority in Eastern Europe. World Politics, 48, 297-323. https://doi.org/10.1353/wp.1996.0007

Barański, M., Czyż A., & Rajczyk, R. (Ed.). (2014). Władza wykonawcza w teorii i praktyce politycznej okresu transformacji. Doświadczenia państw Grupy Wyszehradzkiej. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.

Budzanowska, A. (2019). Pozycja ustrojowa Prezydenta RP w systemie konstytucyjnym Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej w kontekście członkostwa w Unii Europejskiej. Politeja, 4, 257-279. https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.16.2019.61.15

Cenkiewicz, S., & Chmielecki, A. (2016). Prezydent. Lech Kaczyński 2005-2010. Warszawa: Fronda.

Chojan, A. (2013). Polityka zagraniczna współczesnej Polski w świetle uwarunkowań institucjonalno-prawnych. Myśl Economiczna i Polityczna, 1, 114-142.

Ciapała, J. (2018). Kompetencja Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w zakresie powoływania sędziów. Refleksje krytyczne. In A. Rytel-Warzochy, & P. Uziębły (Ed.), Gdańskie Studia Prawnicze. Wybrane zagadzenia prawa konstytucyjnego w Polsce 1997-2017, vol. XL (pp. 493-506). Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego.

Dąbrowski, M. (2018). The evolution of the institution of president’s prerogative powers in the Polish legal system. Przegląd Prawa Konstytucyjnego, 6, 155-165. https://doi.org/10.15804/ppk.2018.06.13

Dziemidok-Olszewska, B., & Michalczuk-Wlizło, M. (2018). Initiative of President Andrzej Duda regarding the change of the Constitution. Teka of Political Science and International Relations, 1, 25-34. https://doi.org/10.17951/teka.2018.13.1.25-34

Elgie, R. (2011). Semi-Presidentialism: Sub-Types and Democratic Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230306424

Glajcar, R. (2009). Ewolucja siły polskiej prezydentury w latach 1989-2009. In R. Glajcar, & W. Wojtasik (Ed.), Transformacja systemowa w Polsce 1989-2009. Próba bilansu (pp. 179-206). Katowice: Remar.

Glajcar, R. (2016). Dwadzieścia pięć lat powszechnych wyborów prezydenckich w Polsce. Potrzeba rewizji? Studia Politologiczne, 42, 13-34.

Grzybowski, M. (2012). System rządów w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej: charakterystyka i diagnoza wątpliwości. Uwagi wprowadzające. Przegląd Prawa Konstytucyjnego, 1, 129-150. https://doi.org/10.15804/ppk.2012.01.07

Jasiewicz, K. (1997). Poland: Wałęsa’s Legacy to the Presidency. In R. Taras (Ed.), Postcommunist Presidents (pp.130-167). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jaśkiewicz, M. (Ed.). (2008). Wygraliśmy przyszłość. 10 lat Prezydentury Aleksandra Kwaśniewskiego. Przemówienia, wywiady, dokumenty (wybór). Warszawa, Szczecin: PPH ZAPOL Dmochowski.

Krzymowski, M. (2015). Jarosław. Tajemnicy Kaczyńskiego. Portret niepolityczny. Warszawa: Ringier Alex Springer Polska.

Leszczyńska, K. (2011). Participation of the presidents Wojciech Jaruzelski and Lech Wałęsa in the process of cabinet formation in Poland. Polish Political Science Yearbook, XL, 43-65. https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy2011004

McMenamin, I. (2008). Semi-Presidentialism and democracy in Poland. In R. Elgie, & S. Moestrup (Ed.), Semi-Presidentialism in Central and Eastern Europe (pp. 120-137). Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Millard, F. (1999). Polish politics and society. London, New York: Routledge.

Miller, L. (2013). Anatomia siły. Rozmowa z Robertem Krakowskim. Warszawa: Czerwone i Czarne.

Pach, M. (2011). Sens i bezsens weta ustawodawczego w Konstytucji RP z 1997 roku: w świetle konstytucyjnej regulacji pozycji ustrojowej Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Kultura i Polityka: Zeszyty Naukowe Wyższej Szkoły Europejskiej im. ks. Józefa Tischnera w Krakowie, 9, 130-156.

Piasecki, A.L. (2009). Weto ustawodawcze w III RP – wymiar normatywny i empiryczny. Próba bilansu. Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, Sectio K, XVI(2), 83-96.

Simpson, P. (1996). The troubled reign of Lech Wałęsa in Poland. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 26(2), 317-336.

Światała, S. (2009). Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w świetle konstytucji z 1997 roku. Regulacja i jej oceny. Dialogi Polityczne, 11, 87-103. https://doi.org/10.12775/DP.2009.007

Szczerbiak, A. (2017). An anti-establishment backlash that shook up the party system? The October 2015 Polish parliamentary election. European Politics and Society, 18(4), 404-427. https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2016.1256027

Tomaszewski, W. (2019). The political debate on the change of the constitution of the Republic of Poland after the parliamentary elections of 2015. Vestnik IKBFU. Humanities and Social Sciences, 3, 89-99.

Turska-Kawa, A., & Wojtasik, W. (2019). Perception of images of Polish presidents after 1989 in the context of democracy consolidation process. Journal of Comparative Politics, 2, 4-17.

Walesa, L. (1992). The struggle and the triumph: an autobiography. New York: Arcade Publishing.

Wicherek, D. (2020). Inicjatywa ustawodawcza jako konstytucyjna kompetencja Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Przegląd Politologiczny, 2, 147-156. https://doi.org/10.14746/pp.2020.25.2.10

Wyrykowski, M., & Cieleń, A. (2006). Poland – Semi-Presidentialism or „Rationalised Parliamentarism”? European Constitutional Law Review, 2, 253-267. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1574019606002537

Cheremushkin, P.G. (2016). Jaruzel’skii: ispytanie Rossiei [Jaruzelski: test by Russia]. Moscow: AIRO-XXI. (In Russ.)

Lykoshina, L.S. (2001). Politicheskii portret Aleksandra Kvas'nevskogo [The political portrait of Aleksander Kwaśniewski]. Moscow: INION RAS. (In Russ.)

Lykoshina, L.S. (2015). “Pol'sko-pol'skaya voina”: Politicheskaya zhizn' sovremennoi Pol'shi [“Polish-Polish war”: the political life of contemporary Poland]. Moscow: INION RAS. (In Russ.)

Mayorova, O.N. (2007). The course of negotiations between the authorities and opposition at the 1989 “round table” in Poland. Slavic Studies, 3, 39-54. (In Russ.) 

Content No. 2, 2023

See also:


Zaznaev O.I.,
Mixed Forms of Government, or How Oil Will Mix with Water. – Polis. Political Studies. 2005. No4

Ilyin M.V.,
Words and Meaningds: Polity. Republic. Constitution. Fatherland (Ended from the Previous Issue). – Polis. Political Studies. 1994. No5

Glebov V.A., Makuhin A. V. ,
Role of the Local Government in the Formation of Civil Society in Poland. – Polis. Political Studies. 2015. No4

Zaznaev O.I.,
Ethnic Conflict and Forms of Government: Contemporary Discussions. – Polis. Political Studies. 2021. No1

Stoianov R.R.,
Political realism between American republicanism and German elitism. – Polis. Political Studies. 2024. No4

Journal

    

 
 

   

Introducing an article



Polis. Political Studies
1 2002


Tarusina I.G.
Dynamics of Political Predispositions of Russia’s Regional Elites (With Saratov Region as Example)

 The article text (электронная версия)
 

Archive

   2024      2023      2022      2021   
   2020      2019      2018      2017      2016   
   2015      2014      2013      2012      2011   
   2010      2009      2008      2007      2006   
   2005      2004      2003      2002      2001   
   2000      1999      1998      1997      1996   
   1995      1994      1993      1992      1991