Which corporatism in Poland? The Social Dialogue Council in the period of functioning of Beata Szydło’s government

Abstract

Corporatism, understood as a policy making system in which the government, trade unions and employers’ organizations collectively make and implement political decisions in the socio-economic matters, functions in many Western European countries. A deformed version of this system – PR (Public Relations) corporatism – emerged in Poland after 1989. Within its framework, the government simulates the tripartite negotiations with social partners to strengthen its political support among the citizens. In fact, it makes political decisions on its own.

The aim of the article was to examine whether creation of the new corporatist organ (The Social Dialogue Council), which has substantially greater competences than its predecessor (The Tripartite Commission for Socio-Economic Matters) led to transformation of the policy-making system in Poland from PR corporatism to Western European corporatism.

The comparative analysis was conducted in this paper in relation to the Council activity during the period of Beata Szydło’s government (2015–2017) and the Commission’s activity between 2002–2015. The research results revealed that the Council and Commission were equally ineffective social dialogue organs, during assemblies of which no major political decisions were made. The paper indicates that expanding the competences of the corporatist organ does not have to improve the social dialogue’s quality. PR corporatism has prevailed in Poland as a policy-making system after 2015.