Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown

The book's title refers to the expression "constitutional breakdown," which seems to reflect the author's profound thoughts regarding the process of unconstitutional actions that one can observe in Poland following the accession to power of the Law and Justice Party (PiS).The mastery of this study lies in the excellent combination of the descriptive layer with general theoretical considerations.The author, describing the course of events, seeks to conceptualize the Polish case by referring to both older and more recent views of scholarship regarding the erosion of democracy and violations of the rule of law.In this sense, despite the personal tone, often verging on emotional, Sadurski's work is a contribution of major significance to contemporary scholarship on constitutional law.Sadurski describes the situation in Poland as an "anti-constitutional populist backsliding."All aspects of this notion have precise connotations and explanations.Its anti-constitutionalism is diverse and, according to Sadurski, has three dimensions.First, it is associated with the concentration of political power in the hands of the leader of the ruling party, who, at the same time, does not hold any significant state functions other than his role as a private MP.Therefore, the pathology of this phenomenon is that incumbents of constitutional organs are merely figureheads executing the will of the leader-Jarosław Kaczyński.In this way, a non-constitutional center of political disposition has been created, and the card-dealer Kaczyński has neither political nor constitutional responsibility.Second, PiS's power is exercised by means of an unequivocal violation of constitutional norms, and third, it involves, in practice, an amendment of the constitution by means of ordinary laws, without the requirement of a constitutional majority.The populist component, in turn, is that PiS acts by focusing on vox populi, and huge support from the masses is vital to it.For this reason, simple economic slogans are selected for the banners, which must be enthusiastically welcomed, at least by the sector of society that hitherto has not sufficiently benefited from the political and economic transformation.Sadurski's approach-defining the Polish political system through the prism of a concept that refers to a stretched-in-time process-seems to be the most appropriate.This is because, as we learn from his book, the erosion of the democratic state's institutions means that Poland is, at present, somehow suspended between democracy and authoritarianism.Thus, perhaps, the central concept around which the book's narrative revolves is the adjective "incremental."This means that the demolition of the rule of law is composed of gradual actions, which should not necessarily be perceived as particularly dangerous and spectacular in isolation, but, in their intensity, undoubtedly lead to the gradual deterioration of the institutions of a democratic state ruled by law. 1 The specific sequence of events is intentional, and aims to accumulate as much power as possible, simultaneously creating the impression, despite the speed of this action, that no institutional change has occurred.In this particular sense, the Polish mode of retreat from 1 This argument resembles Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Z. Huq's point that "democratic erosion is typically an aggregative process made up of many smaller increments."Tom GinsburG & Aziz z.