The article presents a particular mechanism of political decision making in contemporary democratic systems. It is called here ‘ad hoc democracy’. This notion refers to the phenomenon of making political decisions (that are general and abstract) on the basis of premises that are individual and situational. After defining ad hoc democracy, the author reconstructs a typical scenario of the phenomenon, demonstrates selected examples of ad hoc democracy and discusses its main consequences. The analysis of ad hoc democracy construction process follows. The main cause of ad hoc democracy is defined as the interference of internally inconsistent logic of actions taken by three types of actors in political sphere: media, society (treated as an audience) and political decision-makers. In the last part of the article it is hypothesized that the systems experiencing rapid social changes and democratization processes are particularly prone to the emergence of ad hoc democracy. The hypothesis is justifi ed and substantiated by referring to an example of Poland during the systemic transformation process.
Approach to the heritage of communism have been one of the most important subjects of public debate in Poland. Initially a field of conflict between post-communist leftist and post- ‘Solidarity’ parties, these controversies eventually turned into a conflict between the ‘liberals’ and the ‘conservatives’ from the two main post-‘Solidarity’ political parties – namely, the Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska) and Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość). The article reconstructs the most important political debates on de-communisation and ‘vetting’. The other issue highlighted by the author is the heated debates between historians on contemporary history. Subjects such as various forms of resistance against the communist rule, including the post-war armed Underground, along with the question of interpreting documents of the former secret police remain a field of controversies. Recent years have seen the opening of new debates related to the politics of memory and the questions of the role of museums and historical exhibitions in Poland.