The project is aimed at going beyond the national dimension in analysing democratisation and autocratisation and taking into consideration the subnational levels. Following the previous preliminary research, it envisages both theoretical studies to work out the relevant theoretical framework combining democracy and territorial politics studies and the empirical research on the pilot case of Poland, in the years 2010-2024.
This study – to be continued afterwards within the complex comparative analysis – focuses on the impact of democratic/autocratic changes at the national level on the change of state of democracy at subnational levels (selected voivodeships and cities), including the COVID-19 crisis.
The following questions will be posed in the project: What are the democratisation and autocratisation trends in the EU, including Poland, at the national and subnational levels? With reference to Poland: Are there any patterns between changes towards democracy or autocracy and those in the unitary or decentralised direction? Are the decentralised territorial structures “democratic enclaves” in the case of autocratisation starting at a national level and did something change in the last decade in this regard? What type of democratic/autocratic changes can we observe at subnational levels? If the process of autocratisation is enhanced during the COVID-19 crisis, does it have any impact on the subnational structures?
The questions will help to verify the main hypothesis: decentralisation processes constitute an opportunity for subnational authorities to become more democratic but also more autocratic, as they may enhance the divergence in democracy levels between different territorial tiers of governance.