This book assesses the quality of democracy in Poland from the collapse of communism in 1989 up to the 2011 parliamentary election. It presents an in-depth study comparing two decades of democratic politics. The book is an important contribution to debates on the performance of the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, where some scholars argue that there is a `democratic crisis¿. The book shows that democratic quality stems from good democratic institutions, and concludes that effective accountability, good representation and stable competition are vital.