Is There a Room for Local and Regional Self-Government in the Illiberal Democracy? Struggle over Recentralization Attempts in Poland

Since the parliamentary elections in 2015, Poland shifted towards an illiberal model of democracy, largely inspired by the Hungarian experience. One of the first and key signs of the shift towards illiberal democracy in Hungary in the era of FIDESZ was undermining the capacities and autonomy of local governments. Taking into account the ideological proximity of the Hungarian and the Polish ruling parties, there were strong grounds to expect similar tendencies in Poland. This paper reviews the legislation adopted since 2015 in order to explore whether the supposed shift towards recentralization occurred. It proves that while a “creeping centralization” is a fact, the foundations of local and regional self-government have not been dismantled. The nature of this “creeping centralization” is sectoral rather than horizontal, i.e. it focuses on limiting the capacities and powers of local and regional governments in selected areas (particularly education and environmental protection) rather than dismantling the fundamental institutional guarantees of local and regional autonomy or enhancing central supervision over them. This may lead to a conclusion that the foundations of local and regional self-government in Poland are not at risk, yet the scope of decentralization is being gradually rolled out. This paper also demonstrates potential explanations for lack of radical shift towards recentralization. The major hypothesis analyzed in this context relates to the massive public support for local governments and decentralization, manifested in the opinion polls showing the highest trust rate to local governments in their history.