The PiS government banged heads with the EU midway through 2016 after the government refused to accept a constitutional court ruling that had rejected the government’s proposal to limit the powers of that court. EU officials accused the PiS government of having disregarded the rule of law. Likewise, the government came in for criticism from domestic and foreign observers for having expanded its control of the media and for allegedly silencing voices of opposition. Arguably the most controversial aspect of the PiS effort to impose conservative, Roman Catholic, family-oriented values on Polish society was the introduction of legislation aimed at severely restricting the country’s already rigid abortion laws. In early October the Sejm overwhelmingly (352–58) voted down legislation that would have limited legal abortion to cases in which the mother’s life was threatened. Tens of thousands of Poles—mostly women dressed in black—had taken to the streets across the country earlier in the month to protest the legislation.
In July 2017 Poles once again took to the streets en masse around the country for a number of days when the PiS pushed through three bills aimed at judicial reform that was characterized by the opposition as a threat to democracy, judicial independence, and the rule of law in Poland. Responding to the public outcry as well as to the threat of sanctions from the European Union, President Duda defied Kaczyński and vetoed two of the bills: the bill that would have forced all the sitting judges on the Supreme Court to step down and would have given the minister of justice the power to replace them; and the bill that would have dissolved the National Council of the Judiciary, the body that nominates judges, and would have given parliament the power to determine the makeup of its successor. Duda announced that he would not veto the third bill, which gave the minister of justice the power to appoint the heads of local courts.
In early December 2017, the Sejm passed revised versions of the first two bills that had been framed by Duda. The new legislation reduced the retirement age for high court judges to 65, resulting in immediate forced retirement for some 40 percent of the Supreme Court. Also in December, Kaczyński engineered a dramatic reshuffle of the cabinet in which Mateusz Morawiecki, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, replaced Szydło as prime minister. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Citation Information
Article Title: Poland
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 24 August 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Poland
Access Date: August 25, 2019
Additional Reading Geography
Poland: A Handbook (1977), is a comprehensive reference source written by Polish authors and published in Poland for readership outside the country. Glenn E. Curtis (ed.), Poland: A Country Study, 3rd ed. (1994), provides a balanced treatment. Grzegorz Weclawowicz, Contemporary Poland: Space and Society (1996), discusses the changes since 1989. Zbigniew Landau and Jerzy Tomaszewski, The Polish Economy in the Twentieth Century, trans. from Polish by Wojciech Roszkowski (1985), offers an uncritical treatment. David Lane and George Kolankiewicz (eds.), Social Groups in Polish Society (1973), covers postwar ideological developments. Aspects of cultural life are dealt with in Bolesław Klimaszewski (ed.), An Outline History of Polish Culture, trans. from Polish by Krystyna Mroczek (1979, reissued 1984), covering the main cultural trends from medieval times to 1982; and Stanisław Lorentz, Guide to Museums and Collections in Poland, trans. by Jan Aleksandrowicz (1974; originally published in Polish, 1971). The Polish Review (quarterly) focuses on current cultural events. Jerzy A. Kondracki Andrew Hutchinson Dawson Norman Davies History
The history of Poland is presented in W.F. Reddaway et al. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Poland, 2 vol. (1941–50, reissued 1971); Aleksander Gieysztor et al., History of Poland, 2nd ed., trans. from Polish by Krystyna Cekalska (1979); Norman Davies, God’s Playground: A History of Poland, new ed., 2 vol. (2003; also published as A History of Poland, God’s Playground, 1981); Norman Davies, Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland’s Present, new ed. (2001; originally published as Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland, 1984); Adam Zamoyski, The Polish Way: A Thousand-Year History of the Poles and Their Culture (1987, reissued 1994); Paul W. Knoll, The Rise of the Polish Monarchy: Piast Poland in East Central Europe, 1320–1370 (1972); J.K. Fedorowicz, Maria Bogucka, and Henryk Samsonowicz (eds.), A Republic of Nobles: Studies in Polish History to 1864, trans. from Polish (1982); Harry E. Dembkowski, The Union of Lublin, Polish Federalism in the Golden Age (1982); Jerzy Lukowski, Liberty’s Folly: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Eighteenth Century, 1697–1795 (1991); Piotr S. Wandycz, The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795–1918 (1974, reprinted 1984), and Polish Diplomacy, 1914–1945: Aims and Achievements, ed. by Keith Sword (1988); R.F. Leslie (ed.), The History of Poland Since 1863 (1980); Andrzej Walicki, Philosophy and Romantic Nationalism: The Case of Poland (1982, reissued 1994); Titus Komarnicki, Rebirth of the Polish Republic: A Study in the Diplomatic History of Europe, 1914–1920 (1957); Antony Polonsky, Politics in Independent Poland, 1921–1939 (1972); Jan Karski, The Great Powers & Poland, 1919–1945: From Versailles to Yalta (1985); Józef Garliński, Poland in the Second World War (1985, reissued 1987); and Jacek Jedruch, Constitutions, Elections, and Legislatures of Poland, 1493–1993: A Guide to Their History, rev. ed. (1998). George J. Lerski, Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966–1945, ed. by Piotr Wróbel and Richard J. Kozicki (1996), is a useful companion to historical readings.
Communism and its collapse and aftermath are examined in these works: Jakub Karpinski, Countdown: The Polish Upheavals of 1956, 1968, 1970, 1976, 1980, trans. from Polish by Olga Amsterdamska and Gene M. Moore (1982); Jan Józef Lipski, KOR: A History of the Workers’ Defense Committee in Poland, 1976–1981, trans. by Olga Amsterdamska and Gene M. Moore (1985; originally published in Polish, 1983); Michael Checinski, Poland, Communism, Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, trans. from Polish by Tadeusz Szafar (1982); Jadwiga Staniszkis, Poland’s Self-Limiting Revolution, ed. by Jan T. Gross (1984); Lawrence Weschler, The Passion of Poland, from Solidarity Through the State of War (1984); Timothy Garton Ash, The Polish Revolution: Solidarity, 1980–82, 3rd ed. (2002); Neal Ascherson,