Suchergebnisse

LEADERSHIP IN NEW POLITICAL PARTIES IN POLAND AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR OVERCOMING THE THRESHOLD OF PARTY REPRESENTATION AND FOR PARTY INSTITUTIONALIZATION
After the period of relative stabilization of the Polish party system at the parliamentary level in the first decade of the 21st century, changes related to the entry of new parties on the political scene took place in the second one. While in 2007 only four established parties (PO, PiS, SLD and PSL) got seats in the parliament, and the party system at the parliamentary level was described as "concreted". In subsequent elections of 2011, 2015, 2019, newly created parties managed to overcome the threshold of party representation. What they have in common is that they were founded shortly before the election by recognizable leaders and immediately achieved election success, which they were not able to repeat in subsequent elections, they lost their importance and were replaced by newer parties. The aim of the article is to define what role the leader plays in achieving electoral success of new parties and what is the importance of leadership for the party's survival and further election success. These issues are considered in the context of changing the organizational model and the concepts of party institutionalization.

According to Niedermayer's concept of Europarties' development (1983), these organisations have to go through three phases (contact, cooperation, integration) to be fully institutionalised. The aim of this article is to analyse relationships between Europarties and their member parties on the basis of statutes of the former in order to answer the question of where individual Europarties should currently be placed in the Niedermayer's model. The subjects of the analysis are all entities existing in the 9th European Parliament term of office (2019–2024): EPP, PES, ALDE, EGP, ECR, ID, PEL, EFA, EDP, ECPM. The analysis demonstrates that some Europarties tend to create supranational structure (e.g. EPP), others settle for transnational cooperation (e.g. PES). We can therefore ask whether completing the integration phase is the only way to institutionalise of Europarty.

French National Rally – an Old Party in a New Version
The changes in the French National Front in the second decade of the 21st century are generally associated with the advent of a new leader. In 2011, the then chairman Jean Marie Le Pen was replaced by his daughter Marine Le Pen. The reforms introduced by the new chairwoman, including a new party name – National Rally – are referred to as an attempt at dédiabolisation of the party, and they were expected to increase the party's electoral support. The purpose of the article is to answer the questions about whether the change in party leadership caused profound ideological and programmatic transformation of the grouping or simply brought about changes in the image of the party and its leader. The article also examines the methods of political communication with voters, and whether we are still dealing with a niche and anti-establishment party or due to the reoccurring changes it has become part of the political mainstream.

Impact of the Lisbon Treaty on European Political PartiesThe subject of the article is to analyze the relevant provisions of the Lisbon Treaty in order to show the changes they have introduced for Europarties. The main thesis of the article is that even if the direct influence of the said Treaty on Europarties was negligible, its indirect impact could be significantly greater. The article has been divided into three parts. The first recalled the genesis of the Europarties and outlined the legal framework for their activities until the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. In the second one – the provisions of the Treaty directly devoted to the Europarties were analyzed. The third part depicted the areas in which – by adopting a specific interpretation of the Treaty provisions – the Europarties may try to exert an indirect influence on the EU decision‑making process, especially a new way of selecting the President of the European Commission.

The article presents the most important political divisions on the European Union leveland their mutual relations. The right-left wing division has been analyzed. There is alsoa reference to the proponents of the European integration and the Euroskeptics in a broadmeaning of the term. The decisions made inter alia based on the analysis of the program basesof the Europarties and the EP election results allowed for a critical reflection on the interestsof both sides of the argument and their representation adequate to the electoral force. The elaboration is a voice in the ongoing discussion on the EU interests being represented by theEuroparties, which in theory should express the will of the EU citizens and this way affectthe increase of the integration process approval. Their actions in this range can be deemedinsufficient. This is backed by a lack of effective representation channels and the will of thepolitical elite, blocking the euroskeptic forces from accessing the decision-making process,which causes even more resistance from the citizens and favors the increase of the negativeattitudes towards the EU. As a consequence, this can lead to the increase of euroskepticismand the disintegration of the EU.Keywords: sociopolitical divisions, Europarties, political interests, representation,European integration

Europarties are regarded as multi-level organizations, like parties operating in federal or devolved states. Examined is whether they can even be treated as political parties sensu stricto and whether the concepts used to test the relations between the national and regional party structures (vertical integration, influence) could be used to study relationships between the national and European structures. It was indicated that Europarties can be considered both as the additional arenas of national parties' activity and independent political actors consisted of national parties (multi-level parties). The second perspective was used to research 13 existing Europarties. In result, the similarities between the PES and PEL, but differences between the EPP and PES in term of vertical integration and influence were shown. Hence, in the article was proven that there is no one model of relations between the national and European party structures and the parties differ from each other as far as their internal structures are concerned.

Europarties are regarded as multi-level organizations, like parties operating in federal or devolved states. Examined is whether they can even be treated as political parties sensu stricto and whether the concepts used to test the relations between the national and regional party structures (vertical integration, influence) could be used to study relationships between the national and European structures. It was indicated that Europarties can be considered both as the additional arenas of national parties' activity and independent political actors consisted of national parties (multi-level parties). The second perspective was used to research 13 existing Europarties. In result, the similarities between the PES and PEL, but differences between the EPP and PES in term of vertical integration and influence were shown. Hence, in the article was proven that there is no one model of relations between the national and European party structures and the parties differ from each other as far as their internal structures are concerned.

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie partii funkcjonujących na płaszczyźnie euro - pejskiej, ukazanie ich specyfiki oraz kształtującego się między nimi układ stosunków. Artykuł składa się z trzech części. W pierwszej scharakteryzowano triadę: partie krajowe - grupy polityczne w PE - partie polityczne na poziomie europejskim (europartie). W drugiej przybliżono pojęcie systemu partyjnego, w trzeciej odniesiono to pojęcie oraz składające się na niego elementy (partie, interakcje) do partii na szczeblu europejskim, przeprowadzając dyskusję nad adekwatnością ich stosowania w kontekście europejskim. O ile można mówić o istnieniu europejskich partii politycznych, zdecydowanie trudniej udowodnić istnienie europejskiego systemu partyjnego. Interakcje pomiędzy europartiami zachodzą jedynie na arenie parlamentarnej, przy czym nie mają one charakteru rywalizacji pomiędzy rządzącą większością i opozycją. Polegają raczej na budowaniu konsensusu potrzebnego parlamentowi do podjęcia decyzji większością głosów. Nie ma europejskiego systemu partyjnego na arenie wyborczej, gdzie mamy do czynienia z rywalizacją partii krajowych, jak również na arenie rządowej, jako że europejski "rząd" (Komisja, Rada Europejska) nie jest powoływany na zasadzie partyjnej. ; The purpose of this paper is to present the parties operating at the European level in order to show their specificity and the system o f relations emerging among them. The paper consists of three parts. In the first one, a triad: the national parties - political groups in the EP - political parties at the European level (Europarties) are characterized. In the second one, the concept of the party system is presented. In the third one, this concept and its components (parties, interactions) are applied to discuss the adequacy of their use in the European context. While it is possible to speak o f European political parties, it is much more difficult to prove the existence of a European party system. Interactions among the Europarties take place only in the parliamentary arena, but there is no competition between the governing majority and the opposition. These relations lie more in building the consensus necessary for the EP to decide by majority vote. There is no European party system in the electoral arena, where national parties compete, nor in the governmental arena, as the European 'government' (Commission, European Council) is not appointed on the basis o f the political parties.

Even if political parties have new labels, they often can be perceived as a continuation of an earlier existing grouping. The main goal of this article is to discuss how to assess party novelty and congruence (similarity with a previously existing party) and, in particular, to present the framework for analysis of party continuity and newness. Some Polish political parties (Law and Justice [PiS], Civic Platform [PO], Confederation Liberty and Independence [K WiN]) are used to illustrate the approach. We aim to answer the question of whether they were genuinely new when they entered the parliament for the first time or whether they could be considered as a continuation of previously existing groupings in terms of ideological identity, candidates, leadership, and their political elites. The research also encompasses analyses of further party development in these areas to demonstrate that our framework can also be used to measure changes occurring within existing parties. We go beyond researching newness as a dichotomous variable, outline the areas in which party newness can be measured, define indicators of novelty and congruence, and operationalize them given the conditions in Central and East European countries. Then we measure the level of party newness in each of these areas, using ranges from being a genuinely new party to a perfect congruence with an earlier existing grouping.

Abstract
The aim of the paper is to assess new political parties in Poland and to examine the question of their perceived novelty and influence on the party system. We employ Barnea and Rahat's analytical framework to evaluate the newness of Polish parties in three party facets: party-in-the-electorate, party-as-organisation, party-in-government. This multi-dimensional analysis allows one to identify those fields in which any novelty may occur. Among the analysed factors is the new parties' electoral base that enables one to assess whether the parties managed to mobilise a new electorate or rather attracted supporters from existing parties instead. Last but not least, we study the changes caused by these parties within the whole party system. In our research we include parties that entered the parliament for the first time after the last two elections: in 2011 and 2015. Before that time the parliamentary scene in Poland seemed to be firmly closed with a nearly constant set of actors. Both in the 2005 and 2007 elections no new parties entered parliament. Hence the 2011 election is considered to be an opening for new parties, but does not necessarily bring about a significant change in the Polish party system in terms of the electoral support for the two largest parties or within patterns of electoral competition.