Poland Not Yet Authoritarian Country

By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

The victory of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) in the Polish election of October 2015 has brought warnings of incipient authoritarianism, even fascism, in that country. Some critics now call it an “illiberal” democracy.

Seemingly capitalizing on the frustration of many Poles who felt that they had not shared in their country’s economic prosperity during eight years of rule by the liberal Civic Platform, the PiS captured nearly 38 per cent of the vote, while Civic Platform finished second with about 24 per cent.

The party won an outright parliamentary majority – 235 out of 460 Sejm seats -- something no Polish party had done since the fall of Communism in 1989. As well, it had captured the presidency five month earlier.

Almost immediately, it was accused of dismantling democracy with policies designed to limit civil liberties, control the education system as well as state radio and television, politicise the civil service and neuter judicial independence by putting the Constitutional Court under its control.

There is no doubt that the PiS is a socially conservative, Eurosceptic and nationalist party, often at loggerheads with the Brussels bureaucrats who run the European Union.

So what accounts for the party’s continued popularity? Much of it is the result of its populist economic policies, which are in many ways on the left.

Many Poles felt marginalised in a society where successive governments espoused a “sink or swim” attitude towards citizens, irrespective of whether it was the left or the right in power. Individual success was emphasised above all. 

PiS’s more communitarian approach appealed to many Poles who felt they now had a party to vote for that was interested in more than just macro-economic indicators.

PiS promised them less condescension and more protection. It emphasised the need to tackle inequality and propagate strong welfare policies.

The party enjoys support among working class constituencies and union members. Miners, farmers, shopkeepers, unskilled workers, the unemployed, and pensioners, are among its electoral base.

The party leadership, in particular Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has also managed to paint the EU elites as “fanatical” multiculturalists and secularists who are furious that a traditionally oriented, non-politically correct government is in control of Poland.

Strongly Catholic in orientation, the PiS opposed mass relocation of refugees and economic migrants from the Middle East to Poland.

But Poland is still no dictatorship. Its civil society remains robust, and its economy is diverse and lacks media oligarchs, notes Jan-Werner Muller, a scholar of populism at Princeton University. 

Proposals to regulate independent media have been shelved, as were efforts to outlaw all abortions, after thousands of women took to the streets. 

Also, whereas other populists admire Vladimir Putin, Kaczynski loathes Russia – not surprising, given the historical enmity between the two countries.

Piotr Wilczek, the Polish ambassador to the United States, responding to recent alarmist reports about Polish politics, noted in a recent letter to the New York Times that the PiS government “is carrying out reforms in line with its electoral platform, which the voters overwhelmingly supported at the ballot box.”

He asserted that the government faces criticism by the political opposition and media outlets, something a true authoritarian regime would not countenance. 

“We have a very engaged free media, representing a wide range of opinions, a vigorous civil society whose expressions of different views can be seen on the streets, as is the case in the United States, and democratic elections, which brought the Law and Justice party to power,” he wrote. 

He’s right. When I visited Poland last year, people in cities like Krakow and Warsaw were not shy in expressing their displeasure with the PiS.

Of course it pays to be vigilant in defence of democratic norms. But there’s no reason to cry wolf at the present time.

Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda will visit the White House Sept. 18 to discuss trade, military, and security matters.