Polskie priorytety sejmowe w reformie ustroju państwa w okresie Oświecenia (1764–1792)
Streszczenie
The fact that since the beginning of the 16th centuty the Seym had been playing
a dominant role in the political life of the Commonwealth caused that the reform of
the State's political system had to be initiated by the Seym thus making its leading
position in the State even stronger. About the middle of the 18th centuty due to the
limited sovereignty of the Commonwealth and the opposition of Russia it was not
possible to carry out a global reform of the Seym. In order to overcome liberum veto
in 1764 the Family resorted to a substitute solution and applied the principle of
general gentty confederation to the Seym (confederated Seym taking decisions by
majority vote). On the other hand, due to Russia's consent it was possible to
introduce fundamental reforms of the executive power in the form of "Seym sections",
which reflected the structure of the Seym. These "Seym sections" were of
two types: either they had the form of coliegiate administration governing bodies or
the Permanent Council. They consisted of senators, gentty who were not senators
and representatives of the King (ministers) or even the King himself. These "Seym
sections" were, as the gentty saw it, executive organs replacing the Seym. Collegiate
administration governing bodies, promoted by Czartotyscy since 1764, functioned
independently from each other and were subordinated only to the Seym. These
collegiate bodies broke the almost unlimited prerogatives of ministers (one-man
offices).they enabled the enlightened landed gentty to really participate in the State's
administration. they embodied the principles of democratic State in the awareness
of the gentty. The Permanent Council (from 1775), whose supporter was the King,
had a centralized character and realized the vision of a state with a strong governmental-
administrative centre. The gentty decided that the collegiate administration governing bodies are better suited to the model of the gently's Commonwealth than
the Permanent Council.
Fundamental reforms of the State's political system were carried out by the
Great Seym (1788-1792), which made Poland independent of Russia's domination.
It was a confederated Seym, which elevated the enlightened middle gently to the
position of the real sovereign of the Commonwealth thus making them more inclined
to reach reformist political compromise with the Puławy party (at the beginning of
the Seym) and with the King (in the second stage of the debates). At the beginning
of the debates a compromise between the gently parliamentary formation and the
Puławy party was made. The essence of this compromise was that the Seym which
was currently in session was to become the permanent governing Seym (combining
legislative and executive powers and permanently in session) Just as the gentry
wanted and according to the future constitution it was supposed to be the ready
Seym (always ready to be convened in definite circumstances and consisting of the
same members elected every two years) as the Puławy party wanted. This compromise
paved the way for Montesquieu's separation of powers in the future constitution.
In the second stage of the debates the gently parliamentary formation
reached a reformist compromise with the King. The essence of this compromise was
that the gentry accepted the decision making prerogatives of the Guardians of Law
and thier controlling function in reference to the whole administration (contrary to
the Puławy party according to whom the Guardians were supposed to have only
a supervisory role). The King, on the other hand, accepted the sovereignty of the
Seym and the autonomy of the collegiate administration governing bodies functioning
independently from each other and not directly included in the structure of the
government as the gently and Puławy party wanted.
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