Crisis of Democracy in Poland – Does It Affect the Subnational Levels?

Adam Szymański

doi:10.2298/FID2502413S

Authors

Adam Szymański University of Warsaw

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2502413S

Keywords:

(de-)democratization, democratic enclave, local democracy, Poland, territorial politics

Abstract

Most current studies on the democratic or de-democratic changes in Europe have concentrated so far on the national level, while they are also important at the local and regional levels. The article is aimed at investigating:

1) changes going in either democratic or autocratic direction within the subnational structures in a state as well as 2) their relationship with similar processes at the central level – focusing on the impact of the national tier on lower territorial levels. The case of Poland will be studied, focusing on the years 2015-2023 (the period of Law and Justice ruling in the country) but also taking into consideration previous years to identify a possible change concerning the investigated issues taking place since 2015.

The article presents a part of the research within the pilot project. It takes mainly a qualitative approach and is based on the following data sources: local media materials, data from mini survey, in-depth semi- structured interviews of sub-national politicians and national experts as well as data from focus group interviews – local journalists and NGOs members.

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