Democracy in Poland: Representation, participation, competition and accountability since 1989 (Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series Book 64)

This book assesses the quality of democracy in Poland from the collapse of communism in 1989 up to the 2011 parliamentary election. It presents an in-depth, empirically grounded study comparing two decades of democratic politics. Drawing on democratic theory and comparative politics, the book puts forward an evaluation of democracy based on four dimensions: representation, participation, competition and accountability. The book is an important contribution to debates on the performance of the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, where some scholars argue that there is a ‘democratic crisis’, that, after a period of democratic progress, most of these countries are experiencing democratic fatigue and that their democratic performance is poor. However, the Polish case shows that democracy is not in crisis - in fact, the quality of democracy in Poland has improved. The book shows that democratic quality stems from good democratic institutions. Moreover, the Polish case shows useful lessons that can be learnt by democratic reformers in countries that are undergoing the transition to democracy or are aiming to consolidate their democratic systems. It concludes that effective accountability, good representation and stable competition are vital. Cover 1 Title 10 Copyright 11 Dedication 12 Contents 14 List of tables 16 Author’s note 18 Acknowledgements 20 Abbreviations 22 Glossary 26 1 Introduction 28 1.1 The quality of democracy 29 1.2 The case of Poland 30 1.3 Contribution 34 1.4 Structure of the book 36 Notes 36 Bibliography 37 2 Evaluating the quality of democracy 40 2.1 A procedural definition of democracy 40 2.2 Empirical studies on democracies: literature review 42 2.3 Evaluating democracies from a procedural perspective 44 2.4 Conclusions 58 Notes 59 Bibliography 61 3 Representation: descriptive characteristics of parliamentary representatives 67 3.1 Socio-demographic characteristics 68 3.2 Women’s representation 70 3.3 National and ethnic minority representation 77 3.4 Party representation 81 3.5 Indicators of representativeness 91 3.6 Representation and electoral systems 93 3.7 Discussion and conclusion 95 Notes 97 Bibliography 97 4 Participation: voter turnout, membership in civil society organizations and direct legislation 100 4.1 Voter turnout 100 4.2 Membership in civil society organizations 104 4.3 Direct legislation: citizens’ legislative initiatives and referendums 112 4.4 Discussion and conclusion 117 Notes 118 Bibliography 119 5 Competition: party and party system institutionalization 122 5.1 Party institutionalization 122 5.2 Party system institutionalization 127 5.3 Discussion and conclusion 139 Notes 140 Bibliography 141 6 Accountability: executive–legislative relations and the Constitutional Tribunal 144 6.1 The Polish executive 144 6.2 The accountability function of the parliament 148 6.3 The accountability function of the Constitutional Tribunal 166 6.4. Discussion and conclusion 173 Notes 175 Bibliography 176 7 Conclusions 179 Bibliography 184 Index 186