Czy mamy Senat na miarę naszych czasów? Oczekiwania wobec roli ustrojowej Senatu RP a realia jego funkcjonowania
Do we have a Senate fit for our times? Expectations for the political role of the Senate of Poland and the reality of its functioning

Summary/Abstract: The Senate, as the second chamber of parliament, has been an important ele-ment of the Polish system for centuries. In many European countries, the bicameralparliament is an accepted legal standard which still exists today. In Poland, after anabsence of nearly forty years due to political transformation, the Senate reappeared in1989. The topic concerning the existence and function of the Senate has been presentin public discourse for years, raising numerous disputes.The aim of this paper is to answer the question of what role the Senate plays andwhether it should be analogous to the one assigned to it during the systemic transfor-mation. The authors analysed the statements of politicians holding various offices overthe past 30 years and cited examples from the practice of the Senate’s functioning.Additionally, statements by doctrine representatives evaluating the functioning of theUpper House and the legitimacy of maintaining bicameralism in the Polish Parliamentwere presented. The above made it possible to compare the expectations of those pre-sent when this constitutional organ was reintroduced into the legal system in the 1990swith the actual role played by the Senate today. The authors presented arguments forand against the advisability of retaining the second chamber of parliament. In theirconclusions, they found that the scope of competences and the constitutional positionof the Senate are largely variable over time and are derived from the political situation.The Senate can act as a counterbalance to the other branches of government, but inpractice it is not a key element of the system.

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