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Kwiatkowska, A. (2025, fortchcoming) Poland's Opposition Politics: Resisting the Populist Swing. In E. O'Malley, F. Cavatorta, & A. Baturo (Eds.), Handbook of Opposition Politics, Routledge.
Abstract
This chapter investigates the role of the political opposition in Poland, with a particular focus on the rise of populism following the Law and Justice party’s (PiS) ascension to
power in 2015. First, we examine the changing strategies adopted by opposition parties in a political climate increasingly deviating from democratic norms and values, especially
regarding judicial independence, the rule of law, and political pluralism. Further, interpreting the concept of political opposition very broadly beyond political parties with
parliamentary representation, we analyse the impact of extraparliamentary parties, the informal
opposition from civil society, independent judiciary and media, and the rule of law safeguards implemented by the European Union. In this manner, we showcase why Poland,
despite eight years of the government’s anti-democratic actions, has managed to retain the last bulwarks of democratic resilience, including a partially independent judiciary and
regulatory public institutions, free media, and strong opposition, and, finally, to remove the populist party from power in the breakthrough 2023 parliamentary elections.
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Kwiatkowska, A., & Grzybowska-Walecka, K. (2024, forthcoming). Polarized Democracy: Diverging Attitudes towards Democracy in Poland. In K. Grzybowska-Walecka, S. Guerra, & F. Casal
Bertoa (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics, Oxford University Press.
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the changes in attitudes towards democracy within Polish society over time, with a particular focus on the profound impact of democratic backsliding.
Using European Social Survey data, it demonstrates how the destruction of democratic institutions during the rule of the Law and Justice party (2015-2023), combined with intense
conflict between the two main parties: Law and Justice (PiS) and the Civic Platform (PO), has deeply polarized perceptions regarding the importance of democracy and satisfaction
with it among the two electorates. Furthermore, this has led to diverging visions of democracy at the level of its components. The chapter concludes by highlighting the challenges
of restoring democracy in Poland and reinstating a common vision of democracy that can be embraced by society as a whole.
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Rawski, T., Kwiatkowska, A., & Plisiecki, H. (2024, forthcoming). Erystyka poprawności politycznej. Między chwalebną a nienawistną kategorią pojęć. Politeja, 2.
Abstract
The article explores the concept of political correctness in public discourse in Poland, focusing on its usage in Polish parliamentary debates. For this purpose, selected debates
from the 9th term of the Polish Sejm (2019-2023) were used for examination how the term “political correctness” is invoked in parliamentary speeches. The analysis seeks to
determine whether political correctness functions as an eristic mechanism, employed in argumentative tactics to manipulate or discredit opposing viewpoints. The study highlights
the dual nature of political correctness as both a praiseworthy and a pejorative concept in the context of political rhetoric.
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Plisiecki, H., & Kwiatkowska, A. (2024). Discovering Representations of Democracy in Big Data: Purposive Semantic Sample Selection for Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Research.
Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej, 20(4), 18–43. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8069.20.4.02
Abstract
The increasing volume of large, multi-thematic text corpora in social sciences presents a challenge in selecting relevant documents for qualitative and mixed-methods research.
Traditional sample selection methods require extensive manual coding or prior dataset knowledge, while unsupervised methods can yield inconsistent results with theorydriven coding.
To address this, we propose purposive semantic sampling – a Natural Language Processing approach using document-level embeddings created by a weighted average of word vectors with term
frequency-inverse document frequency (tf-idf). We demonstrate its effectiveness using the example of democracy, a complex topic difficult to retrieve from parliamentary corpora. This
method applies to any multi-thematic research area within big data, offering a reliable, efficient sample selection method for social research texts. Our contribution includes
validating this NLP approach for social sciences and humanities as well as providing a robust tool for researchers, facilitating deeper qualitative analysis and exploration of big data
acorpora within the computational grounded theory framework.
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Muliavka, V., Kwiatkowska, A., & Plisiecki, H. (2024). In defence of democracy: parliamentary opposition and democratic resilience in
Poland. East European Politics, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/21599165.2024.2415633
Abstract
The 2023 electoral victory of Poland's liberal opposition halted democratic backsliding and exemplified democratic resilience. This study provides a novel empirical analysis of discursive
strategies used by the main opposition party, Civic Platform/Civic Coalition, in parliamentary speeches on democracy from 2001 to 2020. Using a mixed-method approach with temporally sensitive
word embeddings and discourse analysis, we highlight shifts in opposition discourse since 2015 – from radicalisation to a more moderate, focused response addressing key aspects of democratic
breakdown – demonstrating an adaptive strategy of democratic resilience.
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Rawski, T., Kwiatkowska, A., & Plisiecki, H. (2024). Retoryka wykluczenia a retoryka uwiarygodnienia:
„prawdziwi Polacy” w dyskursie parlamentarnym. Res Rhetorica, 11(1), 28-51. https://doi.org/10.29107/rr2024.1.2
Abstract
Rozróżnienie na „swoich” i „obcych” jest dla władzy narzędziem kształtowania tożsamości narodowej poprzez określenie granic przynależności i wykluczenia. Celem badania była analiza
definiowania wyrażenia prawdziwi Polacy w przemówieniach w Sejmie. Analiza została przeprowadzona na stworzonym korpusie przemówień sejmowych z lat 1989-2023, składającym się z ponad
291 tys. wystąpień z obrad plenarnych. Badanie kontekstu przywołania wyrażenia prawdziwi Polacy, towarzyszących mu emocji, typu bu-dowania opozycji między „prawdziwymi Polakami” a
resztą narodu, w połączeniu z analizą zastosowanych toposów (loci), pozwoliło na wysunięcie wniosków dotyczących politycznych intencji posługiwania się tym wyrażeniem, które
interpretujemy w kategoriach „retoryki wykluczenia” i „retoryki uwiarygodnienia”. Poprzez zastosowanie tej perspektywy, wyniki badania rzucają nowe światło na uniwersalne mechanizmy
konstruowania tożsamości narodowej w dyskursie publicznym, ukazując, jak klasyczne schematy argumen-tacyjne adaptowane są do współczesnych debat politycznych.
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Kwiatkowska, A., Pustułka, P., & Buler, M. (2024). Persistence of Abortion Stigma Inscribed in the Legal Framework: The Case
of Abortion Attitudes in Poland. Social Politics. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxad035
Abstract
This article offers novel insights into the mechanism of abortion stigma and its pervasive impact on attitudes toward abortion. Specifically, it tracks the impact of the restrictive
Polish 1993 law, known as the “abortion compromise,” on attitudes toward pregnancy terminations over three decades, exploring the role of abortion stigma in the observed shifts.
Employing data from representative surveys and in-depth interviews with young women, this study demonstrates how gendered sexuality norms inscribed in the law are responsible for
locating abortion in the realm of morality, thus intensifying its stigma. Remarkably, we uncover a unique convergence of “pro-choice” and “pro-life” perspectives in Poland. The growing
unanimity of attitudes is attributed to the stigmatization of abortion that surpasses the medical or legal justifications of the 1993 law. Thus, the results crucially inform the
strategies needed for the women’s rights movement aiming to liberalize the restrictive legislation.
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Kwiatkowska, A., Muliavka, V., & Plisiecki, H. (2023). Hollowed or redefined? Changing visions of democracy in the political discourse of Law
and Justice. Democratization, 30(3), 458-478. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2022.2152439
Abstract
Since 2015, the governing party, Law and Justice (PiS), has gradually eroded democratic institutions in Poland. To find out whether this process has been reflected in the political
discourse solely as a collapse of liberal democracy or whether we are observing a narrative redefinition of the meaning of democracy, we conducted a systematic qualitative study of the
framing of democracy in PiS parliamentary speeches (2001–2020), set against the comparative background of major Polish political parties. Having adapted the Varieties of Democracy’s
classification of dimensions of democracy to discourse analysis, we show that while the liberal model of democracy has dominated Polish political discourse, it has been used by PiS
less frequently than by other parties and in an increasingly critical way. Furthermore, electoral and majoritarian democracy has been growing in importance and the will of the
electoral majority has been used to legitimize breaking democratic procedures. However, the government’s broad redistributive policies have not been accompanied by a more egalitarian
vision of democracy. We argue that the unwillingness to incorporate an egalitarian dimension into narratives on democracy demonstrates that the ruling party frames redistribution as
their conditional charity towards selected social and occupational groups and not as a corrective towards economically inclusive democracy.
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Lazorenko, O., & Kwiatkowska, A. (2023). Democracy and Civic Space: Normative Models and Ukrainian Discourse.
Filosofska Dumka, 4, 71-102. https://doi.org/10.15407/fd2023.04
Abstract
The article, authored by Ukrainian and Polish social researchers, analyses normative approaches towards understanding models of democracy and their relation to civic space. Despite the
existence of multiple models of democracy, they can largely be reduced to two main forms: direct and representative democracy. Deliberative democracy is posited as a third form, which,
according to some scientists, combines elements of representative, direct, and participatory democracy. The analysis is based on the assessment of democracy and civic space in Ukraine,
utilising data from six applied international social studies, as well as the evaluation of the modern characteristics of some components of Ukrainian civic space. According to the
rating of CIVICUS Monitor, Ukraine has been classified in the category of countries where the civic space is «obstructed» from 2019 to the present time (Autumn 2023). Currently, the
advancement of civic space in Ukraine towards more favourable forms of freedom of association, peaceful assembly, and expression of opinion in the country are threatened by several
factors simultaneously, with the dominant role has Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. The article also uses the results of the authors’ previous and current academic research, as
well as the results of twenty years of advocacy and analytical work as public experts in Ukraine and Europe.
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Kwiatkowska, A., Chwedczuk-Szulc, K. & Bolechów, B. (2022). Disentangling the Moral Rightness of Securitization: Data Mining of the Process of Framing and Shaping of Poland-United States Relations.
Polish Political Science Review 9(1), 35-59. https://doi.org/10.2478/ppsr-2022-0003
Abstract
Since the democratic transition, Poland-United States relations have been framed by the Polish authorities as a strategic threat-management tool in the securitization process of
Poland’s geopolitical position, particularly concerning the Russian Federation. We analyse the process of securitization regarding Poland-US relations through latent topic modelling
of Polish parliamentary speeches in the years 1991-2017. We demonstrate that the discourse on Polish-US relations is heavily dominated by security topics, narrowly understood as
military security. Furthermore, even when economic issues are discussed, they are frequently linked to military operations. Based on Floyd’s (2011, 2019) model of the moral
rightness of securitization, we argue that the close relationship between securitizing moves (debates on Poland-US relations) and security practices (security events) suggests the
basic sincerity of the securitizing actor, while the historical context reflected in the Polish collective memory strongly influences the audience’s frame of reference and strengthens
the power of the securitizing actor. However, although the case fulfils Floyd’s (2019) criteria of morally right securitization, we have shown a historical disparity between the scope
of securitizing moves with security practices and the existing level of threat. This demonstrates that the securitizing agent has been exceeding the ‘least harmful option’, particularly
due to the large asymmetry of power of the participants in the relationship, the securitization process stretched over a long period and the threat severity varying over time.
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Kwiatkowska, A. (2021).
Contested Democracy and the Rise of Archaic Derogatory Language in the Polish Parliament.
In: Walter, A. S. (ed.) Political Incivility in the Parliamentary, Electoral and Media Arena: Crossing Boundaries, London: Routledge.
Abstract
Over the past quarter of a century, we have observed a clear increase in the use of archaic derogatory rhetoric in parliamentary debate in Poland, stylized on the speech of the former
Polish gentry. The aim of this pompous and disrespectful variety of language, delivering absolute moral judgement, has been to label political opponents as morally unable to hold a
political position and thereby exclude them from the decision-making process. In this article, using transcripts of parliamentary speeches from the lower chamber of the Polish
parliament from 1991 to 2019, I analyze changes in political discourse relating to the idea of shame, betrayal and disgrace. The results show that the use of archaic derogatory
language has been increasing over time and has been used primarily by opposition parties. While, initially, speeches casting accusations of treason or disgrace were authored primarily
by radical right-wing parties, since 2015 the usage of archaic, derogative vocabulary by MPs from centrist parties has increased greatly. Besides political affiliation, this is
moderated by other political variables: electoral support and parliamentary experience of MPs.
