pol 2 final study guide

What are the criteria a country must meet to be granted admission to the EU?

What happens during the “negotiation” process of the EU accession?

Understand one area of conflict that arose during the negotiation phase of EU admission in Poland

Why is the EU so successful in forcing countries to comply fully with the criteria for joining?

When did Poland join the EU?

About what proportion of Poland’s citizens supported joining the EU?

How many current EU member countries (their governments and parliaments) must vote to support a country’s admission to the EU?

How does Poland’s semi-presidential system differ from France’s semi-presidential system? Compare the powers of the Polish and French Presidents

• French: The President can dissolve Parliament whenever - dissolving Parliament is firing everyone and having a new election

• Polish: Prime Minister dissolves BUT the president can veto legislation (like ours) → they use the PR system at a 5% threshold (which gives them more parties)

  • The president is kinda like how King Charles says, but doesn’t take much action (even tho the president still does more than the king)

What were the conditions under which Poland’s governmental institutions and electoral rules were chosen, historical and strategic factors

What were the Round Table Negotiations? Why were they important?

• The opposition, old communist group and all of the other parties came to decide what democracy will look like

  • noone knew who would win the eleciton - it was fair

• the oppoisite happened in russia - Yeltsin created the democratic system and didn’t let the communist take control of the Duma in the 90’s when they tried

• main difference between the formations of democracy in poland and Russia is the Polish tried to make it equal for all parties and let democracy and the people choose while yeltsin controlled everything in Russia and controlled their aspects of democracy

The 1991 Polish Parliament, first fully competitive competitively elected parliament after collapse of communism, had 29 parties. What were the implications of a parliament with so many parties?

What were the major party groups in Poland during the first decade of the transition?

• right (market reform, shock therapy, decreasing taxes, indivdual rights, support joining the EU)

• Reformers - also supported joining the EU

What role did the EU play in supporting Poland’s political and economic transition?

Populism in Poland and Eastern Europe more generally democratic backsliding

• not as bad as Putin, but they control media, get rid of judges they don’t like and replace them (usually w ppl from their parties)

How would you describe the political ideology of the Law and Justice Party and the EU?

• the far right → Law and Justice → willing to give child tax credit → working class (think trump supporters)

• Civic → right side → pro market and capitalism → think harris supporters

What are some reasons for conflict between the Law and Justice Party and the EU?

• The Law and Justice party doesn’t want to completely leave, but does want to renegotiate terms

• They don’t like letting immigrants in - they get more from the EU than they give

How would you describe the political ideology of Civic Platform in Poland?

Who is the current prime Minister of Poland and what is his party affiliation?

• Donald Tusk - Civic Platform

  • his tame sounds like trump, but they are veryyyy different

What was the name for Poland’s economic reform program?

Shock Therapy

How successful was Poland’s economic reform?

• It repalced the old communist system with free trade → unemployment was big at first, but then after the new and stronger companies came and changed that

• the EU helped bring companies in but didn’t do all of the work

  • what set Poland apart is how far they moved

What kinds of hardships did Poland’s citizens experience during economic reform?

Following the collapse of communism, how many years did it take before Poland’s economy experienced economic growth.

What was the Soviet Union?

What were the key circumstances that led to the collapse of the Soviet union?

Circumstances surronding drafting of Russian constitution, historical and strategic factors

What are the key presidential powers that undermine the ability of the Russian legisalture (in particular the Duma) to act as a veto player?

What were the major party groups in Russia during the first 10 years of the transition?

What was the main political party after President Putin’s election in 2000?

What are the main reasons why the Communist Party of the Russian Federation won the 1995 elections to the Duma?

What were the key tatics that Putin used to centralize political power in the presidency?

• Putin can rule by decre and write the law if he doesn’t like how the duma is passing legislation

• upper parliment house is sent there from governors (Putin did change it though, so they all come from his party too now)

• Putin was president for 2 terms, then became Prime Minister, (and hand picked the president to work with), and then got elected for 2 more terms

  • this is def. and example of backlash

  • and kinda an example of corruption since he changed and rigged the rules in his favor

What wre the main drivers of economic growth under Putin’s leadership?

What are the features of a “hybrid regime” - another name of which is electoral authorianism?

Why does Putin care about his public approval?

Why did Russian invade Ukraine in February 2022?

What does Russias political system look like?

• Pres (main one)

  • then they kinda work with the PM, but it depends which one Putin is lol

    • the PM is basically the chief of staff, except for when Putin was PM for a term

      • they are usually the same party, so its just about control

• Duma (one house of legislation)

Legislative Executive Relations

• presidential →

• parliamentary →

• semi presidential →

electoral rules

• proportional representation, single member district systems (winner take all vs. 2 ballot)

us vs uk vs french systems

French v polish systems

What do the National front and law and justice parties stand for? What is one difference between populist parties in Western Europe and populist parties in eastern Europe?

• people feel like that are being left behind by the government (with anti immigration, anti eu, euro crisis → lots of people struggled economically)

Why is support for populist parties growing throughout the EU?

What are the similarites between populism in Western and Eastern Europe?

Euroscepticism

Enlargement of the EU to include former communist countries (ex. Poland)

• Poland had to adopt EU laws BEFORE joining (they were faster at this than others)

• conflict: you can’t do anything to treat your farmers poorly - Poland wanted to tax them to give them more resources and help them but the EU wouldn’t let them

• countries ( like poland) had a “transition period: for 7 years where polish immigrants couldn’t work in other countries

What are the requirements of EU membership, and how does the process of meeting those requirements support simultaneous democratizaiton and economic reform?

When did Poland join the EU?

How did EU membership benefit Poland?

How do people in Poland feel about EU membership?

Circumstances surrounding drafting of polish constitutional rules (round table negotiations), historical and strategic factors

What are the key parliamentary powers that ensure that the polish parliament IS a veto player?

What were the major party groups in Poland during the early years of the transition?

What role did the EU play in supporting Poland’s political and economic transition?

Example of Russia’s corruption

Constitutional powers of the Russian presidency: Which are?

How did corruption impact democratization in Russia?