Since 2015, Poland's populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been dismantling the major checks and balances of the Polish state and subordinating the courts, the civil service, and the media to the will of the executive. Political rights have been radically restricted, and the …
Poland's anti-constitutional breakdown poses three questions that this text sets out to answer: What, exactly, has happened since 2015? Why did it happen? And what are the prospects for a return to liberal democracy?
In East Central Europe, constitutionalism comprises an effort by postcommunist societies to consolidate around certain values, principles, and rules that would facilitate the formation of a new political architecture as well as a new political identity for their countries. Based…