CIVIL SOCIETY AS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY: ORGANIZATIONAL BASES OF THE POPULIST COUNTERREVOLUTION IN POLAND. CES Open Forum Series 2019-2020

Ekiert, Grzegorz (2020) CIVIL SOCIETY AS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY: ORGANIZATIONAL BASES OF THE POPULIST COUNTERREVOLUTION IN POLAND. CES Open Forum Series 2019-2020. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

A distinctive trajectory of civil society transformation in Poland has provided organizational foundations for the cultural and political polarization and facilitated country’s recent turn towards authoritarianism. Developments in Poland suggest that the reigning notion of the inherent virtuousness of civil society, its unquestionably beneficial role in strengthening democracy and assumed liberal preferences of civil society actors need to be reassessed. Consequently, I argue that the particular organizational configuration of civil society, its sectoral composition, normative orientation of its actors and prevailing cleavages can either strengthen or undermine democracy. Since country’s transition to democracy in 1989, Polish civil society has evolved into an organizational form that can be described as “pillarized civil society.” While historically pillarization of civil society was considered to be a peculiar phenomenon in the Low Countries in the XIX century, this form of civil society organization has become increasingly common in contemporary democratic societies with dividing boundaries shaped by identitybased cleavages (religious, ethnic, political). The presence of vertically segmented civil society enables extreme cultural and political polarization and facilitated mobilization of far-right, nationalist and conservative religious movements. In Poland, pillarized civil society affect electoral fortune of liberal parties, provides support for anti-liberal and anti-European policies of the current Polish government dominated by the Law and Justice party as well as defines political conflicts and protest politics.

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