Crisis of democracy in Poland: Does it affect the subnational levels?

Most current studies on the democratic or de-democratic changes in Europe have concentrated so far on the national level, while they are also important at the local and regional levels. The article is aimed at investigating: 1) changes going in either democratic or autocratic direction within the subnational structures in a state as well as 2) their relationship with similar processes at the central level - focusing on the impact of the national tier on lower territorial levels. The case of Poland will be studied, focusing on the years 2015-2023 (the period of Law and Justice ruling in the country) but also taking into consideration previous years to identify a possible change concerning the investigated issues taking place since 2015. The article presents a part of the research within the pilot project. It takes mainly a qualitative approach and is based on the following data sources: local media materials, data from mini survey, in-depth semi-structured interviews of sub-national politicians and national experts as well as data from focus group interviews - local journalists and NGOs members.