Wyobrażenia parlamentaryzmu: między dekoracją a realną władzą

The analysis deals with the constant presence of parliamentary ideas in Polish politicalthought of the 19th and 20th century. In the post-uprising reality it was the socialists thatpresented the advantages of democracy and parliamentary representation. They also triedto convince others of the possibility of building a new and just socio-political order on thebasis of the already existing state institutions. Independence provided the opportunity forinstitutionalizing democratic and parliamentary values, however, soon after the MarchConstitution was adopted this type of state organization became denied. The reasons forsuch an aggressive criticism of the parliamentary system expressed by various politicalenvironments stemmed from the socio-political and economic phenomena of the interwarperiod. The clashing political movements of National Democracy and Sanation preferreda centralized model of power. The process of restoring parliamentary democracy in Central-East Europe countries (i.e. those under the political influence of the USSR) after World WarII was affected by different kind of difficulties and obstacles. Following the Soviet mode,traditional parliamentarism was rejected as bourgeois and substituted with representationalsystem based on soviets and with no division of power. In Poland those solutions were notconsequently implemented and the strive for the revival of parliamentarism was visible inthe years of crisis, i.e. 1956, 1970, 1980, when discussions on the need for strengtheningand reinforcing the activity of Sejm sparked again and again. The claim for the revival ofparliamentarism came true only after the decline of real socialism. Nowadays the functioningof parliamentary democracy and its institutions is a topic for populist criticism.Key words: political thought, parliamentary democracy, parliamentarism, political culture