Konstytucyjne zasady ustroju państwa determinujące podstawy prawa wyborczego
The constitutional principles of the state’s political system as determining the foundations of electoral law

Summary/Abstract: The political systems of democratic states are based on specific assumptions contained in the highest legal acts. In Poland, the role of such a supreme legal act is fulfilled by the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the assumptions being constitutional principles. Their uniform definition has been worked out neither by the legal system nor by the doctrine. Hence, they are sometimes defined differently in science. While for some they are “the legislator’s statements of fundamental importance to the functioning of the constitutional system of the state,” for others they are instruments of law which certain norms are derived from, thus influencing the shaping of the principles of the political system or administration of justice regardless of whether they are of primary or secondary nature. B. Banaszak emphasises that within individual constitutional norms it is possible to indicate principles of particular importance to the state. And what is more, the indication of a particular principle at the beginning of the Constitution or in a part of it has consequences regarding its further provisions. W.J. Wołpiuk, in turn, maintains that in a descriptive sense, principles are a certain pattern for research purposes. A. Kallas, on the other hand, defines constitutional principles as principles fundamental to the nature of the state. These principles take the form of separate (individual) provisions, included in the body of Chapter I of the Constitution, but are often also constructed on the basis of a numer of its provisions (e.g. the principle of parliamentary system of the government). Worth noting at this point, however, is a certain regularity that in the constitutions of the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, they are as a rule quite extensive and have a broad spectrum of impact on the entire legal system. This spectrum is particularly relevant in electoral law. The present article will therefore examine this spectrum. It will show the impact of constitutional principles such as the principle of a republican state, the principle of sovereignty of the Nation, the principle of representation, the principle of political pluralism and the openness of the financing of political parties on the basic premises of the electoral law in terms of its subject matter and substantiveness. The key thesis to be proven is that the constitutional principles indicated above find their direct application and development in the provisions of the electoral law. Accordingly, their consequence is, interalia, the principle of the tenure of office of individual, representative organs of the state, including the most important ones of the Sejm and the Senate, which in its essence constitutes a kind of verification of actions for the existing representatives. In turn, the principle of universality of elections, which is a direct determinant of the principle of sovereignty and representation, on the one hand – admits all eligible citizens to the electoral act, in accordance with the idea of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, but on the other hand – eliminates incapacitated persons from this act. Further, among the electoral principles of constitutional consequence, it is necessary to point out equality granting each voter one vote, the value of which is one. Finally, the principle of the secrecy of the ballot will not be overlooked, constituting a kind of security for all those taking part in the electoral act that they will not suffer negative consequences as a result of their vote. However, it is important to show and remind that the above principles of the electoral law are closely interconnected, not only within the electoral law itself, but within the entire legal system. This is because nowadays, in scientific political discourse and in practice, the fundamental importance of primary constitutional values, including precisely coherence of the legal system, is overlooked (another value that is just as often displaced is its stability). Hence, demonstrating this coherence of the legal system and emphasising its importance in Times of political and legal change is particularly justified. The basic research methods used in the paper will be dogmatic-legal and theoretical-legal methods.

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