The global conservative turn and its impact on political landscape

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive study of the impact of the global right-conservative trend on the transformation of Poland's political system in the 21st century. The focus is on the national adaptation of global ideological shifts, accompanied by the rise of nationalist, traditionalist, and anti-liberal movements, the proliferation of anti-gender and Eurosceptic rhetoric, and a gradual erosion of democratic institutions through structural reconfigurations. Special attention is paid to the role of the Law and Justice party, which since 2015 has implemented a political program aimed at strengthening state sovereignty, revising the judiciary, centralizing the discursive space, and resisting so-called “gender ideology.” Poland is explored not only as a recipient of global narratives but also as an active agent of their transborder dissemination — particularly through platforms such as Agenda Europe and the World Congress of Families. The research methodology combines discourse analysis of party documents, comparative evaluation of political strategies, and assessment of the foreign policy implications of conservative norm-setting. The author argues that the Polish case exemplifies a model of regional norm generation that consolidates a transnational network of ideological interaction. This process poses challenges both to domestic democratic stability and to the normative cohesion of the European Union, highlighting the need to rethink the concepts of liberalism, sovereignty, and ideological pluralism in today’s political landscape.