At a time when democracy worldwide is under strain, Let’s Agree on Poland offers a bold vision of how divided societies can escape deadlock. Born of a cross-partisan initiative uniting progressives and conservatives, the book blends rigorous analysis with innovative storytelling. It presents a concrete blueprint for reform, tested through financial models and public-management insights, and dramatized in five stories about fictional “dream” voivodeships. Adapted from Poland’s 2023 bestseller, this international edition adds new essays diagnosing today’s global democratic crisis and charting the mindset needed to overcome it.
Poland’s further economic development requires stable institutions. If the building of these institutions is based on an analysis of international solutions and knowledge of regional Poland – and these are contained in this outstanding book – then we have a proposal that can be of great help to the Poles.
Michał Rutkowski, Regional Director for Human Development for Europe and Central Asia (ECA), World Bank
This book represents a decisive step forward in the reconstruction of Polish democracy.
Professor Bruce Ackerman, Yale University
The Incubator of the Social Contract has succeeded in rereading and building on the historical achievements of Polish constitutionalism while responding to contemporary challenges.
Professor Kim Lane Scheppele, Princeton University
This book gives hope. Europe and the world need a strong Poland, united in its diversity.
Professor Peter L. Lindseth, Connecticut University
Every citizen who cares about democracy in Poland should read this volume.
Professor Monika Nalepa, Chicago University
Is true togetherness achieved in a „winner-takes-all” logic, or in a system that gives voice to many people? Polish constitutional practice has favored the former option so far, often with disastrous results. This book presents a pluralistic alternative
Professor Martin Krygier, University of New Southern Wales
The authors have proposed original and innovative ideas on how to not only improve the functioning of democracy, but also to adapt institutions to the expectations and needs of increasingly diverse societies.
Professor Grzegorz Ekiert, Harvard University
Written at a critical time for Poland, this book has a resemblance of the spirit and determination of Alexander Hamilton.
Professor Elżbieta Matynia, The New School for Social Research
This book is the realization of a great idea: you can be different and yet work together in an institutional court. There is hope!
Professor Adam Czarnota, Riga Graduate School of Law
Regardless of their beliefs, every Polish man and woman should read this excellent book and work through it.
Professor Wojciech Sadurski, Sydney University and University of Warsaw
A creative and intelligent response, giving hope of overcoming political and cultural division.
Professor Wolf Linder, University of Bern
We are in need of a 'governance plan from the level of municipality to Brussels’ and the outlines of such a plan are being sketched by a group of serious analysts representing different political backgrounds.
Professor Jan Zielonka, Oxford University and University of Venice
A beautiful example of the participation of intellectuals in public debate. At all levels of knowledge, different views must have a say.
Professor Pola Cebulak, University of Amsterdam
I’m strolling through a new Poland conjured up by twenty-eight realist dreamers weaving their dreams of new provinces.
Professor Kalypso Nicolaidis, European University Institute and Oxford University
#LetsAgree is a new international discussion series inspired by the book. Bringing together the authors, members of the Social Contract Incubator, and diverse voices from politics, academia, and civil society, it explores contractarian approaches to redesigning the democratic rules that shape our common future.
What can 130 leading Polish thinkers teach us about bridging deep ideological divides? Drawing on the bestselling volume Let’s Agree on Poland (OUP, 2025), Prof. Kisilowski explores how lawyers can mediate between liberalism and the New Right, and why reviving constitutionalism’s contractarian roots may offer one of the last viable frameworks for coexistence.
Read moreHow can democracies survive polarization that corrodes even their strongest institutions? Let’s Agree on Poland (Oxford University Press, 2025) offers one bold answer. Born of an unprecedented collaboration among 130 Polish thinkers from left to right, the book presents a constitutional blueprint for coexistence in divided societies. Its North American launch will use the Polish case to spark a broader conversation about democracy’s future—from judicial independence to cultural conflict, from Europe to the United States. This is not merely the North American launch of the book, but an invitation to imagine institutions capable of holding democracy together.
Read moreThe ideas behind Let’s Agree on Poland are sparking debate well beyond our events. Here you can find op-eds, interviews with the co-authors, and reviews that continue the conversation in leading media outlets.
In this episode of Democracy in Question, CEU’s Shalini Randeria speaks with Maciej Kisilowski about Poland’s 2023 election, geographic and generational polarization, and how democracies can deter authoritarian relapse. Kisilowski argues for a contractarian, decentralizing path to coexistence: institutions built not for domination but for competitive democracy across deep differences—while warning that the right will morph rather than vanish.
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In their Verfassungsblog essay A Constitutional Settlement Is Poland’s Only Hope, Anna Wojciuk and Maciej Kisilowski argue that the June 1 presidential election closed the era of “restoration” and opened one of reinvention. They call for a new constitutional deal—rooted in decentralization, regional power-sharing, and locally legitimized courts—as the only realistic path to democratic stability in an enduringly polarized Poland.
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In this episode of The Review of Democracy, Maciej Kisilowski discusses Poland’s post-election landscape and argues that only a new, decentralized constitutional settlement can make democracy sustainable across ideological divides.
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In their Project Syndicate essay, Maciej Kisilowski and Wojciech Przybylski argue that nation-states can learn from the EU’s governance model. Drawing on Poland’s polarization, they propose decentralization as a path to democratic resilience.
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As populist movements reshape the political landscape from Warsaw to Bratislava, Anna Wojciuk and Maciej Kisilowski argue that defeating them requires more than moral outrage or electoral victories. Writing for Project Syndicate, they call for bold, inclusive projects of national reconciliation and constitutional compromise — lessons drawn from Poland’s own experiment in bridging divides through the Let’s Agree on Poland initiative.
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