Change of the Constitution in Poland: From Dogmatism to Empiricism

Abstract

Based on the initiatives to amend the Constitution of Poland of 1997, submitted to the parliament by 2017, the author answers the question of why sometimes the Constitution is amended and sometimes not. The results of the study moderately confirm the hypothesis stating that if the project has more than four characteristics – it does not concern regulations defining the rules of the game between political actors co-deciding on changing the constitution, satisfies the social sense of justice, does not cause a significant financial and material shift in the short term, is initiated or supported by an influential interest group – it is more likely to be adopted (measured by the stage reached in the legislative proceedings in the Sejm and the percentage of votes).