Constitution -making in Poland: some refl ections on popular involvement

Abstract

In Poland which rebuilt its political system in 1989, after 44 years of communist rule, the forms and effi ciency of the people’s infl uence on constitution-making have varied depending on the historical and systemic conditions. In the light of Polish experiences, broad pre-constitutional social consultations cannot be regarded as an important causative factor, actually infl uencing the contents of the fundamental law. Paradoxically, it is a rule, both in the communist system (which comes as no surprise) and also in a “young democracy”, that the leading political forces do not intend to involve masses of interested citizens in the discussion on the shape of the system and individual institutional solutions. Currently, this may be attributed to the manifest trend of parties’ dominating the political life. One cannot neglect the scarce familiarity of Poles with the mechanisms of state functioning and their citizen’s activity. The above, slightly pessimistic remarks were formulated on the basis of Polish experiences, which I believe to be shared by other states undergoing systemic transformation.

Keywords

• Poland
• constitution-making
• citizen’s political participation