Poland and Turkey’s Support for Democracy

Investment executive and entrepreneur David Colin Burke leads Selby Lane, LLC, as chairman and chief executive officer and Tuolumne Capital, LP, as managing director. Also a noted philanthropist, David Colin Burke contributes to the work of organizations dedicated to education, civic engagement, and good governance, including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In January 2021 the Carnegie Endowment issued a report on political conditions in two key nations experiencing rising tides of illiberal populism and struggles with authoritarianism: Poland and Turkey.

As the Carnegie analysis shows, both nations over recent decades have inspired hope in their potential not only to govern as increasingly influential democracies but to provide positive influences on emerging democracies elsewhere in the world. But each has experienced significant “slippage” in its commitment to principles of civil society, human rights, and the rule-of-law practices essential to the functioning of healthy democracies.

The report looked at how the turn toward illiberalism in both countries has affected their support for other democracies in their regions. It found that though the countries offered continued support for neighboring democratic countries, they continued to tilt toward authoritarianism themselves. Further, this democratic support is embedded in the countries’ ongoing foreign policy commitments and regional alliances, and is therefore more likely to be performative than an expression of genuine commitment to democracy.

This wasn’t always the case. Turkey, a republic since 1923, was long a beacon of democracy and influence throughout the Middle East, and was formerly on track to gain membership in the European Union. Meanwhile, Poland emerged from the democratic revolutions of 1989 with a government and a population scarred by the repressions of the Soviet system, and has often lent substantial support to democratic movements in Central and Eastern Europe, most recently in Ukraine and Belarus.