Explaining democratic backsliding in Poland: The interplay of party-specific and contextual factors

This chapter examines to what extent the government led by the populist Law and Justice party, PIS (2015-19 and 2019 onwards), has affected the democratic system and pluralism in Poland. Empirically, the chapter focuses on executive-legislative relations, in particular law-making function and scrutiny. The research question that drives the chapter is: Which factors account for the decline of democratic standards and pluralism under the rule of PIS? The chapter demonstrates that contextual (institutional) factors are necessary to account for the democratic backsliding in Poland. These factors are weak constitutional prerogatives of the legislative vis-à-vis the executive as well as uncompleted democratic consolidation (weak commitment to formal rules and procedures among political actors). The major vehicle to explain democratic backsliding has been informal practices, not a systematic reform of institutional competences.