Democratic hypocrisy – the tendency for citizens to express support for democratic norms in the abstract while tolerating violations of those norms when doing so serves their partisan interests – has been identified as a potential threat to liberal democracy in conditions of affective polarisation. Yet existing research has relied on declared preferences, leaving open the question of whether such hypocrisy manifests itself in the kinds of multidimensional choices that characterise real political decision-making. Using a conjoint experiment embedded in a three-wave panel survey spanning Poland’s transition from illiberal PiS incumbency to a pro-democratic KO-led coalition government, I examine whether citizens’ revealed preferences for liberal democracy change when power changes hands. Results show that Polish citizens consistently punish candidates who espouse illiberal views, and that this tendency is not significantly altered by the change of government, even among citizens who are highly affectively polarised. Contrary to expectations, citizens polarised in favour of the former incumbent party did not become more protective of liberal-democratic norms after losing power. These findings suggest that revealed preferences for liberal democracy are more stable than theories of democratic hypocrisy would predict, but also that democratic restoration cannot rely on a natural correction in public attitudes following a change of government.
This study aims to verify the hypothesis that the legal framework estab-lished by the Regulation of the Minister of Health of 29 April 2024 regarding the pilot program for pharmaceutical services related to reproductive health – effective as of 1 May 2024 – may not fully guarantee the implementation and oversight of patients’ fundamental rights, as defined in the Act of 6 Novem-ber 2008 on Patients’ Rights and the Patient Ombudsman. A formal-dog-matic analysis was undertaken to examine statutory provisions governing the legal status of the “patient” and the correlative duty to uphold patients’ rights in the context of healthcare provision. The study further explores whether certain pharmaceutical services provided by pharmacists in pub-licly accessible pharmacies may be classified as healthcare services within the meaning of the Act on Medical Activity – thus extending to their recipi-ents the legal protections afforded to patients. The analysis also identifies a potential gap in the applicability of institutional protections offered by the Patient Ombudsman to individuals receiving services in community pharma-cies, which do not meet the statutory definition of medical service providers. This issue is particularly relevant in the context of the pilot program, espe-cially in relation to the legal framework for obtaining consent from minor pa-tients. The findings may contribute to ongoing discussions on legislative reform, particularly regarding the introduction of legal provisions that would enable the valid collection of patient consent in pharmacy settings and the inclusion of pharmacies in proceedings before the Patient Ombuds-man.
