Shaken or Stirred? Polish Constitutional (Dis)continuity between 1917–2017

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to answer the main research question “is there a constitutional continuity in Poland or even the Polish constitutional identity or rather there was a permanent discontinuation in last 100 years of Polish history of state?” For this purpose, the Polish constitutional history in the 20th and 21st centuries has been analyzed with respect to the changes made in the Polish political system over the past century from republican and democratic governments with a strong parliament to governments more akin to the monarchy, with a strong presidency, and even autocratic. Looking for sources of Polish political inspiration references are made to the legacy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.