Poland is regarded as Europe’s first country, which adopted a constitution. It was the second in the world such a basic law in written form, preceded only by the constitution of the United States. The Polish constitution was signed by the king on the third of May 1791.

Today the Third of May Constitution is a Poles` pride. The third May anniversary of its adoption has been observed as Poland` s national holiday with patriotic parades and May Day picnics organised on that day. The third of May was restored as an official Polish holiday only after 1989 and the fall of communism. Earlier, it was celebrated only by the opposition. The third of May constitution is a symbol of Polish attachment to democracy and the effort took by the Poles to reform their country. Unfortunately, it also shows that Polish reforms have often been too slow.

However, let us start from the beginning...

At the end of the 18^th century, there was a Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth stretching from sea to sea, i.e. from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. However, it was “a giant with feet of clay”. The country was weakened by wars and internal conflicts and needed thorough reforms to revive. Most problems of the huge country were connected with the king’s election. The Republic of Poland was not ruled by any dynasty – the king was chosen by nobles by so called “free election”.  The democratic solution appeared to be a huge problem. It enabled the Polish magnates minding their own business and rulers of foreign countries, mainly Russia, France and Prussia, to meddle with the king’s election breaching legal rules and fostering corrupt practices.

In the second half of the 18^th century, the situation deteriorated so badly that the more educated and patriotic group of citizens decided to carry out necessary reforms.

In 1788, the Sejm known as the Four-Year Sejm began its deliberations.

Under the Constitution, the nobles were guaranteed all the privileges and the townspeople were granted many new rights, eg. right to purchase landed estates or hold junior official posts and eligibility for military officers` commission. The Constitution acknowledged the Roman-Catholic faith as the dominant religion, but guaranteed tolerance of and freedom to all religions.

The Constitution abolished the free election of kings. According to the resolution of the Four-Year Sejm, after the death of the current king the throne was to be hereditary in the Saxon dynasty of Wettens.

One the most important provisions of the Third May Constitution was abolition of liberum veto (“free veto”) - the principle of unanimity that allowed a single discontented deputy to dissolve the Sejm and invalidated its decisions. At first, liberum veto was perceived as a great achievement of democracy. Later, it made the public life deteriorated into a state of anarchy and caused bribery and corruption grow considerably.

The Third May Constitution was an enormous success of the reformers. It came too late, however. The reforms faced opposition of the conservative nobles supported by Russia and were blocked. The Russo-Polish war which broke out shortly afterwards ended in defeat of Poland and its final partition. Poland disappeared from the world map for 123 years and revived after the First World War in 1918.