The Polish Constitutional Crisis 2015-16: A Figurational Perspective

Abstract

In this paper, a framework is laid out for an analysis of the Polish constitutional crisis, which started with the electoral victory of national-conservative party in Poland in Autumn 2015, in terms of Norbert Elias’s sociological theory. A brief statement of the basic facts is followed by an application of the established-outsiders model, with particular focus on the institutional aspect of the crisis and on the symbolic operations used by the new government majority in order to challenge the validity of the legal order set forth by the Polish constitution of 1997.