Annual Copernicus Lecture. The Post-Populist Predicament: On Redemocratization and Rule-of-Law Restoration in Poland since 2023.
Wojciech Sadurski, Challis Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Sydney, and professor, Center for Europe, University of Warsaw.
On October 15, 2023, Polish voters elected, by a wide margin, a coalition of democratic parties and thus ended an 8-year episode of authoritarian-populist rule. However, the incumbents left a deeply dismantled institutional field meant to render re-democratization extremely difficult. In such circumstances, a post-populist government faces a fundamental tension between the aim of depolarization and that of democratic consolidation. Sadurski will offer an account of the post-populist predicament in Poland and sketch some proposed solutions to the conundrum.
