Political party funding in Poland

Abstract

The article describes the matter of financing political parties in Poland. The Author draws several conclusions from his observation of the legal solutions and their effectiveness in the practice of political party activities. The Author argues that the Polish law on financing of political parties, regulated by various legislative acts, is fairly criticized for regulatory gaps, ambiguous concepts and incoherent solutions that make the law difficult to interpret and implement. Poland has implemented a system of mixed funding, i.e., both private and public, with predominance of public resources. Parties which manage to reach a certain, pre-determined election result are guaranteed income from the State Budget (subsidies and grants) which are the main source of financing politics. This results in a negative phenomenon of “petrification” of the existing political system. Parties which are not eligible to receive subsidies have great difficulty in carrying out their statutory activities and participate in elections.