The Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics provides students, researchers, practitioners, and interested readers with the most complete analysis of Polish politics and society yet published. Including cutting-edge contributions from specialist scholars across the world, it is a comprehensive and up to date reference work and authoritative source on Polish Politics. Poland is the fifth largest European Union (EU) member state, representing in terms of size and population more than half of the EU enlargement in 2004. On October 27th 2021, it celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first free and fair parliamentary elections. During these 30 years, the country has achieved unprecedented progress and has gone through substantial political and economic transformation. These dynamics make Poland a fascinating laboratory to unfold complexities of post-communist processes and developments, from transition to democracy, to democratic backsliding and backward. Although Poland itself is reasonably well-researched, above all together with other Central East European countries, a prestigious systematic and in-depth analysis in English language in the format offered by an Oxford Handbook is unprecedented.
Edited by:
Katarzyna Walecka,
Simona Guerra,
Fernando Casal Bértoa
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 246mm,
Width: 171mm,
ISBN: 9780192873149
ISBN 10: 0192873148
Series: Oxford Handbooks
Pages: 1168
Publication Date: 22 January 2026
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Part I. Introduction 1: KATARZYNA WALECKA, SIMONA GUERRA AND FERNANDO CASAL BÉRTOA: Polish Politics: an Introduction 2: NORMAN DAVIES: History and Politics Part II. Past and Present 3: ANTONI DUDEK: The Communist Rule (1945-1989) and Its Influence on Contemporary Political Life 4: KRZYSTOF JASIEWICZ: The Round Table Accord and Elections of 1989: The Foundation Myth that Faded Away 5: WIKTOR MARZEC AND TOMASZ ZARYCKI: Structural Entanglements of Polish Politics in Historical Perspective 6: MITCHELL A. ORENSTEIN: Democratisation and Marketisation 7: IPEK CINAR AND MONIKA NALEPA: Transnational Justice and Elite Polarisation 8: BARBARA GRABOWSKA-MOROZ: Rule of law and democratic backsliding in Poland - stages, methods, outcomes Part III. Institutions 9: JAROSLAW FLIS AND MAREK M. KAMINSKI: Electoral System: Genesis, Evolution, and Functioning 10: KAMIL MARCINKIEWICZ: Parliamentary Transformation: Unstable Parties, State Party Families 11: PHILIPP KÖKER: Presidential Politics 12: ANDRZEJ ANTOSZEWSKI AND PRZEMYSLAW ZUKIEWICZ: Coalition Governments and Coalitions Politics 13: ADAM BODNAR AND ADAM PLOSZKA: The Struggle for the Independence of the Judiciary: From Communism to the Rule of Law Crisis 14: KINGA WOJTAS AND RAFAL MATYJA: Public Administration 15: ADAM GENDZWILL: Decentralization and Local Politics Part IV. Mass Politics and Voters 16: MARTA BUCHOLC AND IRENEUSZ PAWEL KAROLEWSKI: Nationalism 17: AGNIESZKA KWIATKOWSKA AND KATARZYNA WALECKA: Polarised Democracy: Diverging Attitudes Towards Democracy 18: JAN KUBIK, MICHAEL BERNHARD AND GRZEGORZ EKIERT: Political Culture 19: MICHAL KOTNAROWSKI: Short-term Determinants of Electoral Behaviour: Economic Voting and Its Extensions 20: HUBERT TWORZECKI: The Social Structure and Electoral Behaviour 21: MIKOLAJ CZESNIK AND PIOTR ZAGÓRSKI: Electoral Turnout 22: DAMIAN GUZEK, MAREK MAZUR AND KAROLINA KOC-MICHALSKA: Mass Media and Political Communication 23: PAWEL MATUSZEWSKI AND MAREK TROSZYNSKI: Social Media and Politics Part V. Political Parties and the Party System 24: KATARZYNA SOBOLEWSKA-MYSLIK: Parliamentary and Presidential Elections 25: RADOS?AW MARKOWSKI: Party System: Stability and Change 26: FERNANDO CASAL BÉRTOA AND INGRID VAN BIEZEN: Party Regulation: A Laissez-Faire Affair 27: FERNANDO CASAL BÉRTOA, TOMASZ GASIOR, MAGDALENA MUSIAL-KARG AND MARCIN WALECKI: Party Funding Regulation: From De-communisation to De-stabilisation 28: KATARZYNA WALECKA AND MARIA WINCLAWSKA: Political Parties as Organizations 29: MACIEJ HARTLINSKI: Pathways and Background of Political Leaders and Elites 30: BEATA KOSOWSKA-GASTOL: Candidate Selection in National and European Parliament Elections 31: BEN STANLEY: Political parties and Ideological Representation Party VI. Society 32: ANNA GWIAZDA: Gender and Politics 33: ANNA GRZYMALA-BUSSE: Religion and Politics 34: GRZEGORZ EKIERT, JAN KUBIK AND MICHAEL BERNHARD: Social Movements and Protests 35: MICHAEL BERNHARD, JAN KUBIK AND GRZEGORZ EKIERT: Social Capital and Civil Society 36: PATRYCJA ROZBICKA AND PAWEL KAMINSKI: Interest Groups and Trade Unions 37: JOANNA FOMINA AND JACEK KUCHARCZYK: The Immigration Policy Debate in Poland, 1989-2023: From Institutionalisation to Instrumentalisation Part VII. Governance and Public Policies 38: MAREK NACZYK: Dependency and developmentalism in Poland's FDI-led growth model 39: JOANNA TYROWICZ AND MARCIN BOJANOWSKI: Labour Market Policies 40: DOROTA SZELEWA AND MICHAL POLAKOWSKI: The evolution of social policy: continuity and change 41: MACIEJ JAKUBOWSKI AND TOMASZ GAJDEROWICZ: The politics and education policies 42: BARBARA WIECKOWSKA, ALDONA FRACZKIEWICZ-WRONKA, IGA RUDAWSKA AND CHRISTOPH SOWADA: Health Policies 43: GRZEGORZ MAKOWSKI AND ADAM SAWICKI: Corruption and anti-corruption policy in Poland Part VIII. Poland and the European Union 44: ANNA PACZESNIAK: Poland in the European Union: the corrosion of consensus 45: ALEKSANDRA SOJKA: Political Elites and the European Union 46: SIMONA GUERRA: Explaining attitudes towards the EU 47: MAGDALENA GÓRA AND KATARZYNA ZIELINSKA: Between Europe and the Nation: The Polish Representation in the European Parliament 48: WOJCIECH GAGATEK: Politicizing Europe: Challenges to Domestic Political Competition 49: AGNIESZKA K. CIANCIARA: EU Decision-making: a Case of Differentiated (Dis)integration? 50: MONIKA SUS: Poland and the European Union's foreign policy Part IX. Foreign Policy and Defence 51: STEFAN SZWED: The awkward middle power: Poland's foreign policy after 1989 52: BARTLOMIEJ E. NOWAK: Security and Geostrategy 53: OLAF OSICA: Poland's uneasy relations with its defence policy 54: SEBASTIAN KUBAS: Poland and the Visegrad Group 55: MICHAL NATORSKI: Polish Eastern foreign policy from the postcolonial perspective 56: PAULINA POSPIESZNA AND TSVETA PETROVA: Poland and Democracy Promotion
Katarzyna Walecka is an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Sociology at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. She previously held a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence and was a Keeley Visiting Fellow at Wadham College, University of Oxford. Simona Guerra, SFHEA, is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Surrey. She is the founding co-chief editor of the first ECPR open access journal Political Research Exchange, current co-editor of Representation, The Journal of Representative Democracy, and an elected executive board member of the IPSA Research Committee (RC03) on European Unification. Fernando Casal Bértoa is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. He is co-director of REPRESENT: Research Centre for the Study of Parties and Democracy, and a member of the OSCE/ODIHR
