CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Rodewald, Piotr Adam |
|---|---|
| Title | Once upon a time... A smoke screen of Polish Foreign Policy discourse, a fairy tale for the domestic audience or what? De-Europeanization discourses and characters employed (or not) by the Polish governing party. |
| Summary | In Poland, the 2015 formation of a new government by the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS, Law and Justice) party has resulted in a changing political reality, both at the domestic and the international level. Institutional reforms marking democratic backsliding have been accompanied by changes in political discourses. In fact, there is a puzzling variety of political discourses present. On the face of it, these new discourses appear to be used inconsistently, and in foreign policy discourses there is only anecdotal evidence of de-Europeanization, which is regarded as a parallel process linked to democratic backsliding. Analysing selected official documents and speeches of Polish government and officials, the study disentangles these different discourses along sovereignty, economic, and conservative/religious frames and highlights the roles of the EU, Polish government and people through the theoretical lens of the Hero, Villain and Victim triad. This study illustrates that within the domestic context, de-Europeanization of discourses happens mostly by sovereignty and conservative/religious frames. It does not happen at all within the context of specific EU-related and international projects. Moreover, discourses present in official documents, paradoxically and arguably, not necessarily intended for a broad domestic audience, differ from those present in speeches, statements, due to different proportions of frames used and lower intensity of language. The dramatic triad of Hero, Villain and Victim is not present in narratives related to specific European projects that Poland was previously engaged in but tries to disentangle itself from. The triad, however, is heavily present in narratives created for domestic purposes. This arguably shows that the actual addressee(s) of these discourses are not the political domestic or foreign actors that are mentioned in them and are present in the dramatic triangle at the domestic stage (for instance, the EU), but rather Polish society itself. The purpose, therefore, is clearly to boost support for the ruling party especially in the critical moments. The triad is also not present in Polish Foreign Policy Strategy (PFPS) and only mildly in 2015 PiS Manifesto, what is revealing on its own. Overall, discourses in domestic and international domains are disjoined. The findings of the study contribute to contemporary knowledge on machinery applied by illiberal regimes seeking to legitimate their ruling, among others through discursive de-Europeanization. Additionally, it demonstrates disjuncture between domestic and international domains, which is widely assumed by International Relations and Europeanization research. |
| Supervisor | Melnykovska, Inna |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/rodewald_piotr.pdf |
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