Historia Stronnictwa Demokratycznego 1980-1991

The aim of this thesis is to present the history and functioning principles of the “Stronnictwo Demokratyczne” (Democratic Alliance) party (SD) during the most important time in the modern history of Poland, starting with the strikes of August 1980 and ending with the first truly free parliamentary elections of 1991. Describing of all these aspects of the functioning of the SD, one analyses at the same time a very specific phenomenon: the concept of a satellite party in the last decade of the PRL. On the one hand we see the SD as a party controlled by the PZPR (including infiltration of SD by PRL secret services) and, in its political statements, only repeating the PZPR’s arguments and slogans. On the other hand, the SD managed to retain a certain degree of autonomy over its internal matters (democratic and often unpredictable results in elections for leadership positions) as well as over its image and political platform. The purpose of chapters I–X is to illustrate the mechanisms under which the party functioned in the political system of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL). The focus in these chapters is on the SD internal structure, financing principles, the functioning of the political apparatus, attempts to establish their own youth organization and the relationship between the SD and the social groups on which it focused: craftsmen, intellectuals and private businessmen. Chapters XI-XVII examine how the activities, attitudes and significance of the SD evolved from the July-August strikes of 1980 and the emergence of “Solidarity”, through martial law and the gradual erosion of the political system of the PRL, to the great change of 1989, the reforms of Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s government and the first free parliamentary elections of 1991. The paper describes and explains the paradox related to the SD: of the three parties forming the party system of the PRL - the PZPR as the leading party and the ZSL and SD as the satellite parties – the SD was the party most interested in the democratization of the PRL system and most involved in the 1989 transformation. Yet, as the only one of these three parties, in a free and fully democratic Poland, the SD turned out to be completely unprepared for a normal competition against other parties for voters’ support.