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Abstract

The article outlines the political history of new democratic constitution-making in Poland since 1989 and scrutinizes the paradox that it took longer than in other former Communist countries. Two areas of debate are compared: first, the division of powers between various branches of government, legislature and judiciary, and second, the variety of rights proclaimed by the constitution and their judicability. Once inner conflict within the ruling elite had been settled, the compromise on the values and rights was reached quickly and a weak but extensive version of the rights had been offered to citizens in exchange for approval of the new constitution in a nationwide referendum in 1997. The process illustrates the duality of the constitutional arrangements - the `inner' version addressing the political class and the `outer' for the wider society.

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Parliament and the Political Class in the Constitutional Reconstruction of Poland

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