Authors

Discussion

Poland is the most successful transition economy in Central and Eastern Europe. After the transition, Poland succeeded in narrowing the gap in living standards and quality of life with the West, became the champion of economic growth in Europe and the world, and Polish economists believe that after 25 years of transition, Poland has entered a real “golden age”. The rise of populism in Poland occurred exactly 25 years after the transition, and inclusive-driven growth did not prevent it

Polish scholars summarize the rule of the Law and Justice in different terminologies, such as “neo-authoritarianism”, “competitive authoritarianism”, “semi-authoritarianism”, “soft authoritarianism” and ‘authoritarian conservatism’. After the Law and Justice came to power, Poland's political development deviated from the direction of liberal democracy, with a parliamentary majority that can amend laws and remove checks and balances, and its ruling party's political concepts and practices were both nationalistic and populist, so that Poland's political development can be called illiberal national populism.

 Law and Justice dominated the rise of non-liberal national populism in Poland. During the eight years that Law and Justice ruled Poland, the democratization, marketization, and Europeanization consensus of the early years of the transition broke down, and national populism shaped Poland's domestic and foreign policies. The reasons for Law and Justice's meteoric rise in Polish politics need to be sought in the unique history of Poland's political transition. The rise of the Law and Justice has been aided by structural changes in the post-transition Polish political landscape, which, with the decline of left-wing in Poland, saw the formation of a landscape in which the conservative Law and Justice faced off against the liberal Civic Platform. The Law and Justice also stood out thanks to the national populist political strategy that Law and Justice utilized properly. Poland's unique socio-political conditions contributed to the rise of national populism. Law and Justice successfully exploited the historically developed cultural and economic divide between the east and the west, as well as the pattern of political polarization, to promote an illiberal national populist turn in Poland.

 The general election held in October 2023 ended the experiment in illiberal national populism led by the Law and Justice, demonstrating that national populism is not invincible. The Law and Justice Party's downfall did not stem from how weakened it was, but rather from a political consensus of left-center-right political forces to overthrow the Law and Justice Party's rule. With the formation of the Tusk-led coalition government, Polish politics entered a new period. The Tusk government faced the daunting task of eliminating the legacy of Law and Justice's rule. The change of government does not mean the e