Transformations in the Mechanisms of Government

• Authors: Jacek Zaleśny

Abstracts

EN

In Poland, the process of departing from concentrated state power typical of the communist countries began in 1989. It was triggered by the Round Table agreement. Unexpectedly, the collapse of the communist authorities was hastened by the results of June elections to the Sejm and the Senate. They pointed out the scale of the nation’s disappointment in the communist rule, the effect of which was that in autumn of 1989 the government that was formed, for the first time in a few decades of years was dominated by the political opposition. The process of political, economic and social changes got deeper, including the change of the political axiology of a communist state in December 1989 into the one adequate for a democratic state of law. Transformations in the political structures of citizens overlapped the transformations in the system of the state power. The opposition, originally united around the “Solidarity” trade union, split right after the breakthrough of 1989 into political parties typical of contemporary states, with the characteristic multitude of opposing views and ambitions, which blocked the possibility of working out a constitutional compromise by the main participants in political relations, with simultaneous existence of legal solutions that did not adjust the political reality. As a result of seeking a temporary modus vivendi, in 1992 the so-called Small Constitution was accepted. It was not until 1997 that a constitutional agreement was concluded in the Parliament, the effect of which was the passage of a new, now binding Constitution. The Constitution of 2 April 1997 provides for the mechanisms of government proper for a rationalized system of parliamentarycabinet system, with a simultaneous emphasis on the special role of Prime Minister as the actual head of the government. As such, it works in the process of its application.

Keywords

EN

political transformation,; system of government,; Sejm and Senate,; Council of Ministers

• Publisher: Instytut Nauk Politycznych Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
• Journal: Studia Politologiczne
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 31
• Pages: 38-63

Contributors

author

Jacek Zaleśny