Poland rises in global rule-law-ranking following change in government

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland has risen in a global ranking of the rule of law following last year’s change in government. The country’s position had previously fallen significantly under the rule of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which was accused of violating democratic standards.

The World Justice Project (WJP), an NGO based in Washington, DC, has since 2015 published an annual Rule of Law Index, which rates and ranks countries through a quantitative assessment of their adherence to democratic principles in a range of areas.

The findings are based on surveying hundreds of experts as well as conducting polling of the general public in each country.

In 2015, Poland received a score of 0.72 on a scale of 0 to 1 (with a higher score being better) and ranked 22nd in the world. However, at the end of that year, PiS took power and began a controversial and highly contested overhaul of state institutions, in particular the judiciary.

As a result, by 2021, Poland’s score had fallen to 0.64 and its rank to 36th, remaining in that position in 2022 and 2023. The country recorded a similar decline in a variety of other rankings of democracy, the rule of law and press freedom.

However, in the latest WJP index, Poland has now risen to a score of 0.66 and a ranking of 33rd – just below Cyprus and Italy and just above Slovakia and Barbados. Among EU countries, Romania, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary are all ranked below Poland.

Poland became this year’s top rule of law improver! Change is possible. #WJPIndex2024 #PositiveChange Explore the index: https://t.co/XydecQYQGN https://t.co/PXzdPdyTDT

— World Justice Project (@TheWJP) October 23, 2024

In individual areas rated by the index, Poland scores particularly well in the category “absence of corruption”, where it ranks 26th globally, and “order and security”, where it ranks 27th.

Its weakest performance is in “fundamental rights”, where it ranks 50th globally, and “constraints on government powers”, where it ranks 45th.

However, in the second of those categories, Poland’s score has increased by 0.07 since last year and its ranking has improved by 21 places. It also saw a rise of 0.07 points and 14 places in the category of “open government”. In other categories, there has been little-to-no change since last year.

All the figures for Poland are based on polling of a nationally representative sample of 5,252 people conducted in spring 2024 and expert surveys carried out between February and June 2024.

 

When the new, more liberal governing coalition led by Donald Tusk came to power in December last year, one of its central promises was to restore the rule of law and democracy, which it said had been eroded during eight years of PiS rule.

However, since then, the government has failed to implement the vast majority of its pre-election promises. It argues that little substantial progress is possible on issues such as judicial reform, abortion and LGBT rights while PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda remains in office and wields veto power.

But critics note that the coalition has in many of those areas failed to pass bills for Duda’s consideration. For example, a long-promised pledge to separate the roles of justice minister and prosecutor general, which were combined under PiS and are now held by Adam Bodnar, has so far failed to materialise.

The government has also been accused by PiS, but also some independent legal experts, of itself violating the law, for example during its takeover of public media and its decision to replace the PiS-appointed national prosecutor.

In its efforts to restore democracy, the government may sometimes take actions that are “not fully compliant with the law”, admits @donaldtusk.

But he says this is because of the legal chaos deliberately created by the former PiS government https://t.co/AWlM6hRLie

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 11, 2024

Last month, Tusk admitted that sometimes his government may be forced to take actions that are “not fully compliant with the law”. However, he blamed this on the legal mess left behind by PiS.

Bodnar on Wednesday welcomed Poland’s improved position in the WJP ranking, saying that that the country had “managed to break the downward trend”.

“After the [October 2023] parliamentary elections, Poland returned to the group of countries respecting the rule of law,” said Bodnar. “We have taken a number of actions to repair the justice system.”

However, he added the the government was only “at the beginning of the road” and its “main, long-term goal is to be among the top countries in the ranking”.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Platforma Obywatelska RP/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.