Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics

The Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics provides students, researchers, practitioners, and interested readers with the most complete analysis of Polish politics and society yet published.

List of contents

• Part I. Introduction


• 1: KATARZYNA WALECKA, SIMONA GUERRA AND FERNANDO CASAL BÉRTOA: Polish Politics: an Introduction


• 2: NORMAN DAVIES: History and Politics


• Part II. Past and Present


• 3: ANTONI DUDEK: The Communist Rule (1945-1989) and Its Influence on Contemporary Political Life


• 4: KRZYSTOF JASIEWICZ: The Round Table Accord and Elections of 1989: The Foundation Myth that Faded Away


• 5: WIKTOR MARZEC AND TOMASZ ZARYCKI: Structural Entanglements of Polish Politics in Historical Perspective


• 6: MITCHELL A. ORENSTEIN: Democratisation and Marketisation


• 7: IPEK CINAR AND MONIKA NALEPA: Transnational Justice and Elite Polarisation


• 8: BARBARA GRABOWSKA-MOROZ: Rule of law and democratic backsliding in Poland - stages, methods, outcomes


• Part III. Institutions


• 9: JAROSLAW FLIS AND MAREK M. KAMINSKI: Electoral System: Genesis, Evolution, and Functioning


• 10: KAMIL MARCINKIEWICZ: Parliamentary Transformation: Unstable Parties, State Party Families


• 11: PHILIPP KÖKER: Presidential Politics


• 12: ANDRZEJ ANTOSZEWSKI AND PRZEMYSLAW ZUKIEWICZ: Coalition Governments and Coalitions Politics


• 13: ADAM BODNAR AND ADAM PLOSZKA: The Struggle for the Independence of the Judiciary: From Communism to the Rule of Law Crisis


• 14: KINGA WOJTAS AND RAFAL MATYJA: Public Administration


• 15: ADAM GENDZWILL: Decentralization and Local Politics


• Part IV. Mass Politics and Voters


• 16: MARTA BUCHOLC AND IRENEUSZ PAWEL KAROLEWSKI: Nationalism


• 17: AGNIESZKA KWIATKOWSKA AND KATARZYNA WALECKA: Polarised Democracy: Diverging Attitudes Towards Democracy


• 18: JAN KUBIK, MICHAEL BERNHARD AND GRZEGORZ EKIERT: Political Culture


• 19: MICHAL KOTNAROWSKI: Short-term Determinants of Electoral Behaviour: Economic Voting and Its Extensions


• 20: HUBERT TWORZECKI: The Social Structure and Electoral Behaviour


• 21: MIKOLAJ CZESNIK AND PIOTR ZAGÓRSKI: Electoral Turnout


• 22: DAMIAN GUZEK, MAREK MAZUR AND KAROLINA KOC-MICHALSKA: Mass Media and Political Communication


• 23: PAWEL MATUSZEWSKI AND MAREK TROSZYNSKI: Social Media and Politics


• Part V. Political Parties and the Party System


• 24: KATARZYNA SOBOLEWSKA-MYSLIK: Parliamentary and Presidential Elections


• 25: RADOS?AW MARKOWSKI: Party System: Stability and Change


• 26: FERNANDO CASAL BÉRTOA AND INGRID VAN BIEZEN: Party Regulation: A Laissez-Faire Affair


• 27: FERNANDO CASAL BÉRTOA, TOMASZ GASIOR, MAGDALENA MUSIAL-KARG AND MARCIN WALECKI: Party Funding Regulation: From De-communisation to De-stabilisation


• 28: KATARZYNA WALECKA AND MARIA WINCLAWSKA: Political Parties as Organizations


• 29: MACIEJ HARTLINSKI: Pathways and Background of Political Leaders and Elites


• 30: BEATA KOSOWSKA-GASTOL: Candidate Selection in National and European Parliament Elections


• 31: BEN STANLEY: Political parties and Ideological Representation


• Party VI. Society


• 32: ANNA GWIAZDA: Gender and Politics


• 33: ANNA GRZYMALA-BUSSE: Religion and Politics


• 34: GRZEGORZ EKIERT, JAN KUBIK AND MICHAEL BERNHARD: Social Movements and Protests


• 35: MICHAEL BERNHARD, JAN KUBIK AND GRZEGORZ EKIERT: Social Capital and Civil Society


• 36: PATRYCJA ROZBICKA AND PAWEL KAMINSKI: Interest Groups and Trade Unions


• 37: JOANNA FOMINA AND JACEK KUCHARCZYK: The Immigration Policy Debate in Poland, 1989-2023: From Institutionalisation to Instrumentalisation


• Part VII. Governance and Public Policies


• 38: MAREK NACZYK: Dependency and developmentalism in Poland's FDI-led growth model


• 39: JOANNA TYROWICZ AND MARCIN BOJANOWSKI: Labour Market Policies


• 40: DOROTA SZELEWA AND MICHAL POLAKOWSKI: The evolution of social policy: continuity and change


• 41: MACIEJ JAKUBOWSKI AND TOMASZ GAJDEROWICZ: The politics and education policies


• 42: BARBARA WIECKOWSKA, ALDONA FRACZKIEWICZ-WRONKA, IGA RUDAWSKA AND CHRISTOPH SOWADA: Health Policies


• 43: GRZEGORZ MAKOWSKI AND ADAM SAWICKI: Corruption and anti-corruption policy in Poland


• Part VIII. Poland and the European Union


• 44: ANNA PACZESNIAK: Poland in the European Union: the corrosion of consensus


• 45: ALEKSANDRA SOJKA: Political Elites and the European Union


• 46: SIMONA GUERRA: Explaining attitudes towards the EU


• 47: MAGDALENA GÓRA AND KATARZYNA ZIELINSKA: Between Europe and the Nation: The Polish Representation in the European Parliament


• 48: WOJCIECH GAGATEK: Politicizing Europe: Challenges to Domestic Political Competition


• 49: AGNIESZKA K. CIANCIARA: EU Decision-making: a Case of Differentiated (Dis)integration?


• 50: MONIKA SUS: Poland and the European Union's foreign policy


• Part IX. Foreign Policy and Defence


• 51: STEFAN SZWED: The awkward middle power: Poland's foreign policy after 1989


• 52: BARTLOMIEJ E. NOWAK: Security and Geostrategy


• 53: OLAF OSICA: Poland's uneasy relations with its defence policy


• 54: SEBASTIAN KUBAS: Poland and the Visegrad Group


• 55: MICHAL NATORSKI: Polish Eastern foreign policy from the postcolonial perspective


• 56: PAULINA POSPIESZNA AND TSVETA PETROVA: Poland and Democracy Promotion

About the author

Fernando Casal Bértoa is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. He is co-director of REPRESENT: Research Centre for the Study of Parties and Democracy, and a member of the OSCE/ODIHR "Core Group of Political Party Experts".

Katarzyna Walecka is an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Sociology at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. She previously held a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence and was a Keeley Visiting Fellow at Wadham College, University of Oxford.

Simona Guerra, SFHEA, is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Surrey. She is the founding co-chief editor of the first ECPR open access journal Political Research Exchange, current co-editor of Representation, The Journal of Representative Democracy, and an elected executive board member of the IPSA Research Committee (RC03) on European Unification.

Summary

The Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics provides students, researchers, practitioners, and interested readers with the most complete analysis of Polish politics and society yet published.

Product details

• Authors: Katarzyna Guerra Walecka
• Assisted by: Fernando Casal Bértoa (Editor), Guerra Simona (Editor), Katarzyna Walecka (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 02.10.2025
• EAN: 9780192873149
• ISBN: 978-0-19-287314-9
• No. of pages: 1120
• Series: Oxford Handbooks
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Affairs & Administration, International Relations, Comparative Politics, Regional, state and other local government, Regional government