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Proportional Representation in Prewar Poland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Alexander J. Groth
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Extract

Institutions can frequently play crucial roles in the political process. Rarely has this been more true than in Poland immediately after World War I, and rarely has a great political party made a more substantial mistake than did the Polish National Democrats and their allies in backing the establishment of proportional representation. It was largely because of this ill-fated electoral device that the Nationalist Right failed to win control of the first and second parliaments in renascent Poland. Coincidentally, no government based on the support of one reasonably homogeneous group could be formed until 1930, and then the conduct of the 1930 election rendered the results highly suspect.

Proportional representation was first employed in Poland in the elections to the Constituent Sejm of 1919. The electoral law was promulgated in November, 1918, by Premier Jędrzej Moraczewski, whose action then could only be described as reflecting full national consensus.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 1964 , pp. 103 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1963

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References

1 Bobrzyński, Michał, Wskrzeszenie Panstwa Polskiego, Vol. II: 1918-1923 (Warsaw, 1925), pp. 23–24 Google Scholar. Świerzyński's cabinet was a creature of the Council of Regency established in Poland by the Central Powers during World War I (Oct. 14, 1917) for the avowed purpose of creating a Polish kingdom at the conclusion of hostilities.

2 Projekty Konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (Warsaw, 1920), p. 5. The commission included, among others, A. Parczewski, Z. Cybichowski, J. Siemieński, J. Buzek, S. Starzyriski, O. Balcer, M. Rostworowski, S. Kutrzeba, and W. L. Jaworski.

2 Bobrzyński, loc. cit.

4 The most convincing material on this is contained in Projekty Konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej.

5 Constituent Sejm, Debates, Feb. 22, 1919, Session 4, p. 135.

6 Kumaniecki, K. W., Zbiór najwaźniejszych dokumentów do powstania ństwa polskiego (Warsaw, 1920), pp. 126–27 Google Scholar, for Declaration of the Lublin Government of Daszyński of Nov. 7-8, 1918, promising a “five-adjective” (proportional representative) electoral law as its point no. 4. The term “five-adjective” franchise became a widely used short term for universal, equal, direct, secret, and proportional voting.

7 Constituent Sejm, Debates, Feb. 22, 1919, Session 4, p. 129.

8 Witos, Wincenty, Wybór Pism i Mów (Lwow, 1938), p. 223 Google Scholar.

9 Dmowski, Roman, Upadek Myili Konserwatywnej w Polsce (Warsaw, 1914), pp. 172–73 Google Scholar.

10 Ibid., p. 66.

11 See Kumaniecki, op. cit., pp. 125-26, for Świerzyński's declaration issued on November 4.

12 In 1918 as the Socialist, Niedziałkowski, wrote, everyone in Poland was a democrat. For a discussion of mass moods see Niedzialkowski, M., Przeciw Senatowi (Warsaw, 1919)Google Scholar.

13 Data based on Krzywicki, L., ed., Statystyka Wyborów do Sejmu Ustawodawczego (Warsaw, 1922), pp. xxvi–xxixGoogle Scholar.

14 That is, Professor J. Buzek's draft on behalf of the numerically small “Club of Constitutional Work,” see Projekty Konstytucji …, pp. 83-111.

15 15 Ibid., p. 59.

16 Sejm Debates, CLXXVI session, 1920, p. 15.

17 « Ibid., CCCIV session, 1922, p. 21.

18 is Ibid., p. 23. The timing and scope of Nationalist reorientation were obviously influenced by perceptions of mass moods.

19 Ibid., p. 29.

20 See, e.g., ibid., pp. 5-10.

21 Under the Moraczewski Act there were 29 districts out of 71 which elected 8 or more deputies. Under the 1922 Act only 5 out of 64 districts chose as many as 8 deputies. At the other end of the scale, 10 districts under the new law elected only 4 deputies each, while under the Moraczewski Act there were only 5 such districts.

22 Data on the 1922 (Tables 2 and 3) election are based on Blaszkowski, L., ed., Statistique des Élections a la Diète et an Sénat effectues le 5e le 12 Novembre 1922, Vol. VIII (Warsaw, 1926)Google Scholar.

23 See, e.g., Sejm Debates, CCXCII session, 1926, pp. 4-19.

24 For an analysis of the 1930 election returns see Groth, op. cit., Chap. 7.

25 Bełcikowska, A., Stronnictwa i Zzuiązki Polityczne w Polsce (Warsaw, 1925), pp. 10–16 Google Scholar. Styra, Cf. R., Das polnische Parteiwesen und seine Presse (Poznan, 1926), p. xxxiv Google Scholar.

26 Hermens, F. A., Europe Between Democracy and Anarchy (Notre Dame, 1951), p. 1951 Google Scholar. The author estimates the average duration of a Polish cabinet of this period to have been five months and twenty days.

27 Retinger, J. H., ed., All About Poland: Facts, Figures, Documents (London, 1941), pp. 19–20 Google Scholar.

28 This was certainly the theme of many of the Marshal's pronouncements. See, e.g., Józef Piłsudski, 1926-1929, Przemówienia, Wyiviady, Artykuly (Warsaw, 1930), pp. 13, 31- 32, 232, 267, and so forth.