Idea silnego rządu w polskiej myśli polityczno-prawnej u progu niepodległości
The idea of a strong government in the Polish political-legal thought at the beginning of Polish independence

Summary/Abstract: In the opinions which were commonly presented by pre-war lawyers and his-torians, the institutional system of the state growing out of the provisions of the March constitution (1921) was based on the constitution of the Third French Republic (1875). By the same token, it copied and even deepened some of the failings of the French system, including the weakness of the executive dominated by the parliament, particularly by its lower chamber. The article presents the major conditions for the creation of the executive power in the first Polish twentieth-century constitution. The basis for these deliberations was reference to the traditions of two Polish historical schools which were shaped in the partition period, rep-resenting pessimistic and optimistic visions of the Polish history before the fall of the state. It was shown that the adopted model of the executive, despite the original declarations, broke with the categorical order derived from the political tradition of the Third May Constitution which was constituted by the idea of a strong government. It was caused by personal animosities and the lack of steady political consensus on the establishment of the first cabinets of the Second Polish Republic and it subsequently led to a deep crisis in the state institutions, the consequence of which was the May Coup carried out by Marshal Józef Pilsudski and the imposition of a quasi authoritarian regime.

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