De facto differentiated disintegration in the European Union. The case of Poland

ABSTRACT This article seeks to shed light on the evolution of demand for differentiation in Poland. First, it argues that since EU accession Poland has moved from instrumental towards quasi-constitutional differentiated integration, and towards differentiated disintegration de facto. Second, it conceptualizes non-compliance in the rule of law area as a manifestation of differentiated disintegration de facto understood as polity-related deliberate and enduring circumvention of EU legal framework. Third, it argues that this mode of de facto differentiation constitutes a challenger strategy of Poland’s populists in power aimed at undermining the foundations of the European polity. Accordingly, the Polish case provides an illustration of ‘post-functionalism reversed’: it is not a Eurosceptic public that constrains a pro-integrationist government, but a Eurosceptic government that drives differentiation and disintegration without explicit support from the largely pro-integrationist public.