The Origins of Modern Polish Democracy

5 ||| The Rise and Fall of Parliamentary Democracy in Interwar Poland

5 ||| The Rise and Fall of Parliamentary Democracy in Interwar Poland Piotr J. Wróbel In 1918, after the fall of the Russian, Austrian, and German empires, a political vacuum appeared in east-central Europe that created an opportunity for oppressed nations to gain or regain their independence. Poland became one of the newly created states that filled this vacuum. Most Poles accepted the reemergence of their state with enthusiasm and began to build Polish state institutions. By November, an army, police, and administration were established in central Poland, and the borders of the Polish-controlled territories expanded quickly. And yet the crucial question remained: what kind of political system should the new state adopt? Independent Poland had ceased to exist in 1795. It was obvious that after 123 years of partition, a new Poland could not be a simple continuation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . The major achievement of Polish legislative thought, the Constitution of May 3, 1791, was an inspiring but outdated document. The same applied to the constitutions of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–15) and the Congress Kingdom of Poland (1815–30). During the nineteenth century, the lands of partitioned Poland had undergone fundamental changes in political, economic, and social structure. The reborn Poland needed a new political system, but its establishment posed a major challenge to its citizens.1 Political Forces in Poland in 1918–19 In 1918–19, a majority of Poles opted for parliamentary democracy and most likely would not have accepted any other political system. The collapse of Parliamentary Democracy in Interwar Poland | 111 the eastern empires and the victory of the western powers had an enormous psychological impact. Many people assumed the superiority of democratic rule over monarchic and military states. Polish public opinion, as was the case throughout the region, was fascinated with the victorious powers, particularly France and the United States, and wanted to follow their examples. Democracy was the word of the day. Even the Regency Council, formed by the German and Austrian occupiers in 1917, used democratic slogans.2 Moreover , none of the existing political alternatives available in 1918 was particularly appealing or viable. Conservatives as well as the less visible and scattered monarchists had generally cooperated with the partitioning powers during and before the war, and as a result had lost any real support among the Polish people after the fall of the empires. The Organization of Polish Monarchists (Organizacja Monarchistów Polskich) and its successors did not have a clear program and had difficulty finding a candidate for the Polish throne.3 In November 1918, only a few small conservative coteries existed. The largest of them, the Party of the National Right (Kraków’s Partia Prawicy Narodowej), tried to distance itself from its loyalist past. On November 27, 1918, it reorganized itself into the Party for the Construction of a United Poland (Stronnictwo Budowy Zjednoczonej Polski) and, in 1919, into the Party of Constitutional Work (Stronnictwo Pracy Konstytucyjnej). In January 1919, one of its most outstanding leaders, Michał Bobrzyński, was appointed by the Polish government to chair a committee to draft a new constitution.4 The Party of Constitutional Work and other conservative groups, such as the National Union (Zjednoczenie Narodowe) from the Congress Kingdom , conservatives from Prussian Poland, and a group gathered around Wilno’s daily Słowo (Word), based their programs on concepts of the hierarchic organization of society, interclass solidarity, social evolutionism, anti-egalitarianism, protection of property, religion, and respect for timesanctioned institutions. They supported centralized government and a strong presidential system. They did not oppose parliamentary democracy, but feared its excesses. In 1918–19 and during the entire interwar period, the conservatives were unable to act independently, and cooperated with large political blocs, usually with the National Democrats and, after 1926, with the Piłsudskiites. Far from forming a real political party, the conservatives became a political club, discussing theoretical issues and offering commentary on the direction of political life in Poland.5 112 | Piotr J. Wróbel The extreme left was represented by the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland (Komunistyczna Partia Robotnicza Polski, KPRP) organized on December 16, 1918. The KPRP tried to launch a Bolshevik-style revolution aimed at establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat and a Communist system in Poland. The KPRP built Councils of Workers’ Deputies and formed a Red Guard. Indeed, in the fall of 1918 some parts of Poland were on the edge of revolution. Yet the Communist program was not popular, and...