ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Masovian province in the central part of Poland and some selected cities in this province: Warsaw (capital city), Radom, Płock and Otwock. It presents an ambiguous picture regarding the state of local and regional democracy between 2010 and 2023. Both improvements and deficits have been identified with regard to all analysed models of democracy. The latter raise doubts as to whether the analysed cities can be called “democratic enclaves” during the period of de-democratisation at the national level in Poland between 2015 and 2023. The analysis indicates that the reasons behind the democratic deficits in the Masovian province and its selected cities can be found at the national level and in the specific characteristics of local and regional politics. Sometimes, the combination of factors at the national and subnational territorial tiers was responsible for the same democratic deficit (for instance, media bias, the marginalisation of the opposition and “soft” executiveaggrandisement).
