Policy-dominating Interest Groups in Poland
Currently in Poland there is a movement within the Polish government, headed by the conservative Law and Justice party, to create a committee dedicated to ruling on violations of freedom of speech in the country’s universities. This proposed amendment to the nation’s higher education law follows in the wake of a controversy that took place at the University of Silesia, were a professor was accused of expressing homophobic and anti-abortion sentiments. This committee would serve as an arbiter that would defend the right of professors to express views on both sides of the political spectrum, thus vindicating the professor who received backlash for expressing such conservative views. It would be mandatory that at least fifty percent of the proposed committee would be composed of non-academic personnel, thus removing a significant amount of power from the national universities and allowing the government to fill those seats with committee members that would be especially sympathetic to whatever ideologies the current government leaders endorse, in this case highly conservative ones (Morgan 2020).

This move from the government, as would be expected, has been highly unpopular among academics and the growing left in Poland due to it being seen as an effort to protect those who promote ideas that are seen as discriminatory and has been classified by some as the “de-democratization of universities” due to the fact that it takes the power to determine what is acceptable to teach in school (Reisz 2018). Additionally, in the last year, the political left has emerged in Poland with strong and growing support. A coalition of the main liberal party, the Democratic Left Alliance, and two new parties, Together and Spring, is starting to gain much more political traction and is expected to net 40 more parliamentary seats in the next national election (Chapman 2019). With this impressive rise in the political left in Poland, what has prompted to party in power, the conservative Law and Justice party, to promote such an unpopular move? Do the members of the party leadership and the members of parliament truly wish to rob the universities of a significant portion of their autonomy in favor of greater government influence in institutions of higher education? Is the general population wary of the  influence of universities, and therefore supports these measures?

The answer to these questions may have to do with a third group, not the election-driven politicians nor the constituents they represent. In agreement with the UCLA view of parties, expressed by Bawn et al, political parties, and as such the decisions they make, are oftentimes dictated by the desires and influences of interest groups. They found that parties in the United States are best understood as coalitions of interest groups that use the government for their purposes. These groups have goals that can be achieved by working together, and as such, form a long coalition to achieve mutual goals. The groups promote policies that benefit them all and these policies become the platform of the party that they collectively form. This means that parties will not react with complete adherence to the desires of their constituency.

In the context of the new committee being formed in Poland, there is a massive and highly influential interest group that dictates almost every move of the conservative Law and Justice party: the Catholic Church. In Poland, the Catholic Church is by far the dominant religion, roughly 86% of the country identifies as Roman Catholic (“Poland Religions” 2018). The Roman Catholic church also gives financial support to parties and candidates that support its conservative ideals. In order to more finely exercise its influence on the Polish government, there are specific interest groups made up of Catholic activists, representatives, and officials that lobby for legislation, such as this free speech committee. In this case a group of Roman Catholic lawyers called Ordo luris, which describes itself as “defending the Polish Constitution against radical ideologies that aggressively question the existing social order,” submitted a draft of legislation that would implement the creation of a committee that would help protect those who support conservative ideologies to the dominant conservative party (Morgan 2020). This legislation creating these changes was reportedly based directly on the draft submitted by Ordo luris. This has led to some concluding that this move was not as much political as it was “a clear bow to the [Roman Catholic] Church by the government” (Reisz 2018). This powerful interest group was the motivator behind this legislation, whether or not the people or their leaders truly felt it was necessary. This situation seems to show that Bawn et al’s observations about parties in America may be true in other countries as well.

Sources:

Chapman, Annabelle. 2019. “Poland’s Law and Justice Party has Triumphed Again by Fusing Left

and Right.” New Statesman America. Accessed February 20, 2020.

https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2019/10/poland-s-law-and-justice-

party-has-triumphed-again-fusing-left-and-right

Morgan, John. 2020. “The Church, Universities and Poland.” Inside Higher Ed. Accessed

February 20, 2020. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/20/polish-

academics-fear-role-roman-catholic-group-legislation-free-speech

“Poland Religions.” 2020. Index mundi. Accessed February 20, 2020. https://www.indexmundi

.com/poland/religions.html

Reisz, Matthew. 2018. “Power Grab in Poland?” Inside Higher Ed. Accessed February 20, 2020.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/02/academics-oppose-proposedhigher-education-law-poland