Social Policy as the Instrument for Buying Political Support

The purpose of this paper is analysing Polish ruling party (Law and Justice) politics in the context of social policy and populism. Populism can be described as proffering of material goods in return for electoral support. Voters remain loyal to the party because they expect to receive benefits in exchange. It was important reason Law and Justice won election. During the election campaign, they have promised to give monthly PLN 500 (epsilon 114) in cash handouts to families for every second and subsequent child. In effect Law and Justice party (PiS) won absolute majority in the Parliament and Senate in 2015 elections. They did as promise and after more than a year from election support for ruling, PiS is still climbed, despite Polish government is clearly threatening democratic principles. How could be explained this phenomenon in a country like Poland? Maybe the mass support for populist PiS reflects growing socioeconomic inequalities and socially insecure. After decades of communist rule, Poland transitioned to a democratic government and a market economy. For more than two decades, the country was developing at a pace exceeding an average of 4% a year. On the other hand, in Poland is rapidly rising level of wealth and income inequality and mass support for populist political parties. PiS, a right-wing party influenced by the country's powerful Catholic church, has long argued that the fruits of Poland's economic growth over the past decade have been felt only by the minority from urban middle classes. Rewarding working-class people, who typically have larger families and live in rural areas, mainly in the country's poorer eastern regions, was a key part of the party's election victory. The analyse of values, principles and goals of social policy will show that the new family benefit founded by PiS has nothing to do with social policy or with populist politics. Its meaning PiS simply used social policy as electoral investment instrument for attracting electoral support and buying votes. This situation is very dangerous for democracy and for the future of civil society in Poland.