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Hungary and Poland in Times of Political Transition. Selected Issues

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Hungary and Poland in Times of Political Transition. Selected Issues Hungary and Poland in Times of Political Transition. Selected Issues Edited by Beata Pająk-Patkowska, Marcin Rachwał Faculty of Political Science and Journalism Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań 2016 This publication was developed as part of a project financed by the Hungarian-Polish Non-governmental Cooperation Programme. Pro- ject title: Poland and Hungary in the era of political transformation – directions for developing political system and civil society. Project implementation period: 01.07.2016–31.12.2016. Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Węgiersko-Polskiego Programu Współpracy Pozarządowej. Tytuł projektu: Polska i Węgry w okresie transformacji systemowej – kierunki rozwoju systemu po- litycznego i społeczeństwa obywatelskiego. Czas realizacji projektu: 01.07.2016–31.12.2016. Reviewers: prof. dr hab. Magdalena Musiał-Karg, dr hab. Piotr Matczak Cover designed by: Filip Biały © Copyright by Faculty of Political Science and Journalism Press, Adam Mickiewicz University, 89 Umultowska Street, 61-614 Poznań, Poland, Tel.: 61 829 65 15 ISBN 978-83-62907-91-5 Skład komputerowy – „MRS” 60-408 Poznań, ul. P. Zołotowa 23, tel. 61 843 09 39 Druk i oprawa – Zakład Graficzny UAM – 61-712 Poznań, ul. H. Wieniawskiego 1 Contents Beata PAJĄK-PATKOWSKA, Marcin RACHWAŁ Hungary and Poland in times of political transition – introduction . 5 Andrea SCHMIDT The course of transition into a democratic system in Hungary . 11 Zoltán VÖRÖS Directions for development of political systems – decrease in legitimacy . 25 Zoltán BRETTER The name of the game: The Regime of National Collaboration . 39 Andrea SCHMIDT Challenges of democracy, party reshaping and party preferences . 57 László KÁKAI The main characteristics of Hungarian non-profit sector after the economic crises . 73 Viktor GLIED On the civil sector and it’s political activity in Hungary after 2010 . 85 Paweł STACHOWIAK Polish transformations of 1988–1989. Political authorities, opposition, the Church . 105 Aleksandra BAGIEŃSKA-MASIOTA Constitutional order of the Republic of Poland in the years 1989–1997 on the basis of the Constitutions and their amendments . 119 Marcin RULKA Changes within the political system in Poland since 2015 . 147 Marcin RACHWAŁ The Polish model of democracy . 163 Marek ŻYROMSKI The transition process in Poland and Hungary and the neofunctional elitist paradigm . 181 Artur LIPIŃSKI Political and social dimensions of the left–right division. The Polish case . 193 Agnieszka BEJMA The development of civil society in Poland after World War II . 209 Jakub JAKUBOWSKI, Beata PAJĄK-PATKOWSKA Social media in relation to acts of government and (un)shaping of citizenship . 223 Biographical notes . 237 Beata PAJĄK-PATKOWSKA, PhD Marcin RACHWAŁ, PhD The Faculty of Political Science and Journalism Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Hungary and Poland in times of political transition – introduction Poland and Hungary after the Second World War remained in the sphere of influ- ence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and couldn’t make independent deci- sions about domestic and foreign policies. Political transitions that began at the turn of 1980s has shifted the image of Central and Eastern Europe (see more: Szczepaniak, Zyborowicz, 1995, p. 5). Countries of the region regained the possibility to make in- dependent decisions, which resulted in development of democracy, market economy and triggered transitions within the societies. Nowadays it is already 28 years since the political transition has begun. Hence, there are many questions about the course of this process in both countries. The indicated circumstances encouraged to start the researches, which have focused on the following aspects: – the manner of starting the political transition and the role of Hungarian and Polish societies in this process; – adopted solutions within the model of political system in Poland and Hungary; – the condition of civil society in both countries within historical and contemporary context. As a result, the research was focused on two dimensions of a political system, i.e. the authors illustrated the condition of democracy as well as the condition of civil soci- ety in the countries concerned. The starting point was formed by comparative research into initiation of the political transition in Hungary and Poland, the adopted constitu- tional solutions as well as the manner in which the political system was functioning in the first years following the social and political adjustments. Further on, the re- searches on evolution of democracy in the both countries have been undertaken. What is important, from the perspective of contemporary times it is visible that Polish and Hungarian governments are formed by political parties which have introduced (and are still introducing) many significant changes within the political systems that faced e.g. unfavourable reactions from the part of several member states of the European Union. As a consequence, there appears a question about the causes that led to the current state of affairs. What is more, the possible paths for developing political systems of the both countries are frequently being analysed. The first research field concerned the democratic political system. The second issue addressed by the research team concerned the problems of creating and developing civil society in Poland and Hungary. Research questions undertaken within the men- tioned scope included a significant issue of the role of societies in Hungary and Poland 6 Beata PAJĄK-PATKOWSKA, Marcin RACHWAŁ at initiating the political transition. Moreover, the research aimed at illustrating the condition of civil society in both countries within the period between 1989 and 2016. The essence of democracy, defined by etymological reference to the rule of people, implies that correct functioning of a democratic state is not possible without active civil society that is aware of its rights. “Contemporary revival of discussions about the civil society is an attempt to counteract deficiencies of democracy. [...] Democracy without civil society does not function well because correct operation of this political system requires social capital, trust, willingness to cooperate and knowledge about public af- fairs. Indeed, the mentioned features are created by the civil society” (Rachwał, 2010, p. 52). Taking into account the mentioned circumstances, it seems that the researches into condition of democracy and civil society in Hungary and Poland are justified. The articles that form this book have been divided into two parts. The first part refers to Hungary, while the other part concerns Poland. The Hungarian part begins with the article of Andrea Schmidt entitled The course of transition into a democratic system in Hungary, in which the author presents the Hungarian path towards political transition and the first period of developing the po- litical system. In the article summary, the author specifies that the shape of political transition was affected by the process of converting into democracy. Citizens’ partici- pation was considerably weaker than in Poland or Czechoslovakia, while the changes have been initiated and introduced by the political elite, which the author identified as a technocratic approach. Those considerations are continued by Zoltán Vörös, whose article entitled Directions for development of political systems – decrease in legitimacy presents changes that were made to the political system of Hungary after adoption of a new constitution and a new election law. In his opinion, democracy is not threatened directly by the introduced changes, but rather by the manner, in which the mentioned acts of law have been adopted. They were a “creation of a single political party and a single period,” but most of all they were absent during the process of developing a consensus. According to the author, “if this attitude, respecting compromise on the higher level was over and the foundations of the democracy became the playgrounds of politicians, it would question the legitimacy of the institutions and the state.” On the other hand, Zoltán Bretter puts forward an even more developed thesis that the political system, which formed in Hungary as a consequence of changes introduced by the government of V. Orban, has features of an authoritarian system. By referring to concepts of N. Machiavelli, the author analyses political activity of V. Orban within the formal as well as contextual dimensions. At the same time, the author points to those decisions and their political consequences, which allow for referring to the system that develops in Hungary as an authoritarian system. Moreover, the article presents factors which allowed Orban achieving an undisputed victory in elections of 2010, which gave the then government legitimacy to introduce changes within politics. Another article developed by Andrea Schmidt has been dedicated to the process of shaping the Hungarian party system after 1990 as well as the associated processes and shifts within political preferences in Hungary. The author addressed a very interesting issue, which refers to division between the left-wing and the right-wing parties that has a completely different nature from that observed in the states of Western Europe. Hungary and Poland in times of political transition – introduction 7 In Hungary, the primary division criteria refer to cultural and ideological issues, rather than economy. Moreover, the author describes other political dividing lines in Hun- gary, including e.g. the division between communism
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