The Road to Autocratization? Redefining Democracy in Poland

The paper is going to tackle issues of changing ways of political thinking in Poland after electoral campaigns (general and presidential) of 2015. Its main goal is to answer the question on what does the current development means for the future of democracy in Poland. Will Poland face new wave of autocratization – similar to Pilsudski’s one? The paper is based on empirical research conducted during last presidential and general elections in Poland. It was based on e-survey on which 10 000 people answered and over 4 000 left their data for further analysis. The research main goal was to find connection between patterns of political thinking and electoral behavior; show the connection between one’s own set of political values and electoral decisions. The paper will report on date mentioned above and elaborate on current actions taken by PiS. The ruling party in Poland openly refers to esthetics and rhetoric’s of authoritarian regime of Pilsudski. Its election slogan: “Good change” has been treated as reference to interwar “sanacja” driven form latin “sanatio” – cleansing or to heal. The main goal of Sanacja political group was to bring change into then parliamentary democracy, which was seen as corrupted and inefficient. The paper will try to show the current patterns and changes in electorate. In the summary show some predictions for future of polish democracy, based empirical data and observed actions of ruling party.