Once a flagship initiative of the Biden administration, the Summit for Democracy has in its last three iterations largely fallen victim to two unfortunate factors. First, the Biden administration has been indecisive about the strategic goals of the summit and second, the administration has been forced into constant crisis management mode by pressing international developments.
However, there is another country that has a strategic interest in reviving the Summit for Democracy and saving a legacy project of U.S. foreign policy. That country is Poland.
Poland’s Re-Democratization Experiment
Since the illiberal Law and Justice (PiS) party was ousted from power in the fall of 2023, Poland’s democratic ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has struggled to extricate Poland from the semi-authoritarian state capture by PiS since 2015.
The Tusk government must maintain domestic, European and transatlantic support for its new democratic transformation process, while living up to the maxim that the restoration of democracy and the rule of law must be carried out in accordance with the rule of law — a daunting task in the case of captured institutions.
While Poland’s re-democratization is fraught with myriad political challenges, there is one low-hanging piece of fruit that could help demonstrate the importance of this re-democratization experiment and help maintain a supportive international environment: Warsaw could declare its clear intention to take the baton from South Korea and host the next Summit for Democracy early next year.
PR for Re-Democratization
While few allies question the importance of Polish democrats’ struggle to restore the rule of law, some ill-considered steps, such as the planned closure of PiS-dominated public media, cast a negative light on the process and call into question the compatibility of the means with the ends they seek to serve.
Other measures in the pipeline, such as the vetting of PiS-appointed “neo-judges” of questionable integrity and the regulation of their new status in the Polish judicial system, are under close scrutiny by European institutions and the international community due to the sensitivity of the issue and its sheer impact on the independence of the judiciary.
Hosting the next Summit for Democracy could help the Polish government highlight its fight against state capture and for the restoration of the rule of law. Additionally, it could highlight the necessity of these sensitive developments in the context of the overall re-democratization process. A well-designed Summit for Democracy agenda can provide effective PR for the restoration of the rule of law in Poland and strengthen its legitimacy both internationally and domestically.
Right tool for the job?
Born in the context of the 2020 U.S. election campaign, the Summit for Democracy process — and President Biden’s democracy agenda more broadly — have been widely criticized as outdated, redundant and ineffective. Overshadowed in its first iteration by the COVID-19 pandemic, and in its second and third by a lack of ambition and pre-defined strategic goals, the Summit for Democracy process has rightly earned criticism. However, the overall picture is certainly more nuanced.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine presented Western leaders with the strategic choice of how to strengthen Western unity in the face of the existential challenge posed to Western democracies by authoritarian global powers.
While lip service was repeatedly paid to strengthening Western democratic cohesion as the only sustainable and long-term solution to the existential authoritarian challenge, in reality both the United States and the European Union reverted to a short-term, tactical approach. They chose to overlook democratic deficits whenever possible and bought consent with pragmatic trade-offs whenever necessary to maintain unity behind the strategic decision to support Ukraine and sanction Russia.
The Summit for Democracy was one of the few initiatives to focus on democratic cohesion, resilience and solidarity. Consequently, it brought necessary attention to the underlying systemic competition behind the hard security challenge posed by Russia in Europe and China in East Asia.
Keeping the summit process alive is thus more than just a helping hand for a legacy initiative of the Biden administration. It is a strategic contribution to maintaining the West’s focus on the systemic rivalry between democracies and authoritarian global powers. Perhaps more importantly, it avoids the trap inherent in the short-term approach of pragmatic trade-offs: the weakening of the West’s own democratic integrity.
The Summit for Democracy process is an excellent way to demonstrate that the global democracy agenda is still alive. There are few better ways for Poland to promote its own re-democratization experiment and strengthen its legitimacy. Poland would be well advised to seize the moment and take the baton.
Daniel Hegedüs is senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States