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Poland Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Poland
Official Name: Republic of Poland
Capital: Warsaw
Area: 312,680 square kilometres ( 120,726 square miles )
Major cities (Population)
Warsaw 2,316,000 (1995)
Kraków 751,500 (1992 estimate)
WrocÓaw 644,000 (1992 estimate)
PoznaÕ 589,300 (1992 estimate)
GdaÕsk 466,700 (1992 estimate)
Szczecin 414,900 (1992)
Katowice 366,200 (1992 estimate)
Bydgoszcz 354,000 (1992 estimate)
Lublin 352,100 (1992 estimate)
Population: 38,388,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 0.1 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Democratic state
Independence: 11 November 1918 (independent republic proclaimed)
Constitution: A new constitution was ratified by parliament and approved in a nationwide referendum in 1997. It replaced the interim “small constitution”.
Voting Rights: Universal at age 18
Government
The president, who is directly elected, is the head of state and appoints the prime minister, who is the head of government. The prime minister is usually, but not always, the leader of the party with the largest number of seats in parliament. The bicameral national assembly comprises a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member senate. The voting age is 18.
Recent History
At the end of World War I Poland became an independent nation again. A parliamentary democracy was established, but the country endured almost continual financial crisis, and in 1926 Marshal Józef Pilsudski staged a coup. His dictatorial rule lasted until his death in 1935, after which a military council took over. On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany two days later. Two weeks later forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) invaded from the east and Poland was again partitioned as part of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. More than six million Poles died during World War II, including three million Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust. Because the Soviets were already in the east, they were also given administrative control over the regions liberated from German occupation when Germany was defeated. As a result of the new post-war “order” Poland was 20 per cent smaller than in 1939. Elections were held, but by 1948 a Soviet-backed Communist government was in firm control. The country’s political system came to be modelled on that of the USSR, with some exceptions, such as land ownership and matters of religion.
Just as they had rebelled several times while partitioned and under foreign control, the Polish people rebelled against Communist authority on several occasions after 1948. In 1981, following a series of crippling strikes and the formation and activity of the Solidarnoíº (“Solidarity”) labour union, General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law. Solidarnoíº was outlawed and its leaders were jailed. Martial law was lifted in 1983, and Lech WaÓÄsa, the leader of the still-outlawed Solidarnoíº, received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts to win freedom and a better standard of living for the Polish people. Solidarnoíº maintained pressure on the Jaruzelski government and won international support and admiration.
In 1989, the USSR being unwilling to intervene as in the past, the Polish government legalized Solidarnoíº—which won many parliamentary seats in national elections—and implemented changes in the government. Jaruzelski was elected president in July and stepped down from his leadership of the Communist party. After pressure for reform, a top Solidarity official, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, was named as prime minister. In 1990 the government instituted a bold economic reform programme, referred to as “shock therapy”. Jaruzelski resigned to speed political reform, and Lech WaÓÄsa was elected president.
The government came under increasing public criticism for rising unemployment and falling living standards. Since then the political scene has been unstable and several prime ministers have come and gone. In 1993 former Communists made a strong showing in parliamentary elections that resulted in a coalition between the Democratic Left Alliance and the Polish Peasant party, the leader of which, Waldemar Pawlak, was named prime minister. The new government said it would continue the transition to a market economy, but at a slower pace.
The presidential elections of November 1995 saw the defeat of President WaÓÄsa by his ex-Communist challenger, Alexander Kwaíniewski, whose Democratic Left Alliance had led the coalition in power for the previous two years. A new constitution was ratified by the parliament and approved in a nationwide referendum in 1997. It replaced the interim “small constitution”.
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