Functioning of the parliamentary opposition during the period of the Constitution of 1921 and 1997 – selected issues

This article is a jubilee text, intended to celebrate the centenary of the adoption and entry into force of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1921. The author discusses the issues of the functioning of the parliamentary opposition in two historical periods of the 2nd and 3rd Republic of Poland, analyzing legal regulations and political mechanisms. Due to the limited volume framework of this study, this analysis has been limited to some issues only. Their selection was primarily determined by the similarities in the sphere of normative and political phenomena that can be noticed in both epochs. Hence, the article includes topics related to: the legal basis and the normative concept of the functioning of the parliamentary opposition, the impact of the parliamentary opposition on the appointment of positions in the internal organizational apparatus of the Sejm, relations between the parliamentary opposition and the Marshal of the Sejm, the levels of rivalry and cooperation between the parliamentary opposition and the ruling camp. The author’s argument leads to a bitter reflection that the existing parliamentary system has still not freed itself from the ballast of the past and is far from a system adhering to the developed standards of protection of the rights of the opposition that exist in modern countries.