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1 Law & Admin. Post-Soviet Eur. 5 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/lape1 and id is 1 raw text is: E DE GRUYTER OPEN LAW AND ADMINISTRATION IN POST-SOVIET EUROPE THE JOURNAL OF KOLEGIUM JAG ELLONSKIE TORUNSKA SZKOLA WYZSZA V L. I: 5-15 DOI: 10.2478/lape-2014-0001 Grzegorz G6rski Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Constitutional changes in Poland between 1989 and 1997 Key words: Constitution of Poland, Poland 1988-1997, ,,Solidarnosc 1. Introduction Between 1987 and 1988 the communist elite in Poland that held the power had become aware of the fact that the significant changes in both system and economic model were necessary. It resulted from the influence of both external factors, i.e. the general dismantling of the system and paralysis of the Soviet state, as well as the internal ones, such as the growing threat of economic disaster1. The growing social resistance and gradual self- 1 It is necessary to point out, that apart from the well known weaknesses of the Soviet model of economy, it was the complete inability to cope with the competition result- ing from the technological revolution of the 1980s that con- tributed to the economic disaster of the PRL. While during so called Gierek era the technological distance between Pol- ish and the world economy wasn't that big, the rapid devel- opment of new technologies (especially IT) caused that in relatively short time there appeared an abyss between the two of them. Evidently, it was the effect of marshal law and the shut off as the result of the policy of Jaruzelski's team from the access to technology. At the end of the 1980s Polish economy could be perceived as a sort of a museum of com- pletely different times. -organization of the society2 made the pretended changes, like the ones made in 1956 and 1970, pointless. It was obvious that the next change of the party and state leaders, introducing another ,,reform, or the policy of ,,further improvement of socialist system would be no more than indifferent for the society. Therefore, the Warsaw regime decided, after the initial agreement with the group of the ,,Solidarnosc leaders at the break of 1988 and 19893 to make significant 2 When still in 1987 organized structures of the opposi- tion, mainly ,,Solidarnosc, were very weak, in 1988 (after the second pilgrimage of John Paul II during ,,war period) the real ,,explosion had place. Not only the structures of ,,Solidarnos started to be rebuilt intensely, including some attempts to make it legal, or other social organizations, but also even legal political organizations. This was the form ad- opted by political clubs, and what is more historical politi- cal parties undertook their activities officially (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna or Stronnictwo Pracy), and Konfederacja Pol- ski Niepodleglej had de facto abandoned the underground existence. s At the break of 1988 and 1989 in Magdalenka (the conference centre of security authorities) the minister of in- ternal affairs Czeslaw Kiszczak started secret negotiations with Lech Walesa and a group of his co-workers on behalf of the communist authorities. It was during these talks that the preliminary conditions of the agreement between the au-