The Ambivalence of Polish Populism

Professor Ben Stanley discusses the evolution of the populist movement and affiliated parties in Poland in the 2000s and 2010s. He argues that while its rhetoric and economic policies have empowered social groups that felt excluded from post-1989 reforms, the nativist cultural policies and the politicization of the institutional infrastructure by the Law and Justice party have also militated against the pluralist understanding of politics in the country. Speaker: Ben Stanley, PhD is an Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw and Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex.