Poland Inches Closer to “Illiberal Democracy”

Posted: January 4th, 2017

By Aleksander Smolar

Aleksander Smolar is President of the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw, an independent private Polish foundation established by American financier and philanthropist George Soros. Smolar is also Senior Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. Between 1971 and 1989, Smolar was an active member of the Polish diaspora on behalf of opposition movements in his native Poland and other Eastern European countries. In 1974 he founded the political quarterly, Aneks, on which he served as editor-in-chief until its closure in 1990. From 1989 to 1990, he was an advisor to the first democratically elected prime minister of Poland, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, and from 1992-1993, he served as advisor for foreign policy to Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka.

From Constitutional Court reforms that make the judiciary less independent of political power to restrictions on journalists to suppressing of the opposition, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is causing a commotion within the European Union (EU). European authorities consistently make their displeasure with the Polish government actions known, but there is very little they can do in practice. Moreover, it is unclear what the state of democracy is in Poland right now – the country can not be labeled authoritarian, but it seems less and less of a liberal democracy.

The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder spoke with Aleksander Smolar, President of the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw, to get his thoughts on current Polish politics. Between 1971 and the end of Communist rule in 1989, Smolar was an active member of the Polish diaspora on behalf of the opposition.

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