Editing Sejm (section)

===Second Polish Republic===
After the [[First World War]] and re-establishment of Polish independence, the convocation of parliament, under the democratic electoral law of 1918, became an enduring symbol of the new state's wish to demonstrate and establish continuity with the 300-year Polish parliamentary traditions established before the time of the partitions. Maciej Rataj emphatically paid tribute to this with the phrase: "There is Poland there, and so is the ''Sejm''".

During the [[interwar period]] of Poland's independence, the first [[1919 Polish legislative election|Legislative ''Sejm'' of 1919]], a Constituent Assembly, passed the [[Small Constitution of 1919]], which introduced a [[parliamentary republic]] and proclaimed the principle of the ''Sejm'''s [[sovereignty]]. This was then strengthened, in 1921, by the [[March Constitution of Poland|March Constitution]], one of the most democratic European constitutions enacted after the end of World War I. The constitution established a political system which was based on [[Montesquieu]]'s doctrine of separation of powers, and which restored the bicameral ''Sejm'' consisting of a chamber of deputies (to which alone the name of "''Sejm''" was from then on applied) and the Senate. In 1919, [[Roza Pomerantz-Meltzer]], a member of the [[Zionism|Zionist]] party, became the first woman ever elected to the ''Sejm''.<ref>{{cite book |title=God's Playground: A History of Poland |last=Davies |first=Norman |year=1982 |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=302}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Hostages of Modernization: Studies on Modern Antisemitism, 1870-1933/39 |last=Strauss |first=Herbert Arthur |year=1993 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |page=985}}</ref>

The legal content of the March Constitution allowed for ''Sejm'' supremacy in the system of state institutions at the expense of the executive powers, thus creating a parliamentary republic out of the Polish state. An attempt to strengthen executive powers in 1926 (through the August Amendment) proved too limited and largely failed in helping avoid legislative grid-lock which had ensued as a result of too-great parliamentary power in a state which had numerous diametrically-opposed political parties sitting in its legislature. In 1935, the parliamentary republic was weakened further when, by way of, [[Józef Piłsudski]]'s [[May Coup (Poland)|May Coup]], the president was forced to sign the [[Polish Constitution of 1935|April Constitution of 1935]], an act through which the head of state assumed the dominant position in legislating for the state and the Senate increased its power at the expense of the ''Sejm''.

On 2 September 1939, the ''Sejm'' held its final pre-war session, during which it declared Poland's readiness to defend itself against invading German forces. On 2 November 1939, the President dissolved the ''Sejm'' and the Senate, which were then, according to plan, to resume their activity within two months after the end of the Second World War; this, however, never happened. During wartime, the National Council (1939–1945) was established to represent the legislature as part of the [[Polish Government in Exile]]. Meanwhile, in [[Nazi-occupied Poland]], the Council of National Unity was set up; this body functioned from 1944 to 1945 as the parliament of the [[Polish Underground State]]. With the cessation of hostilities in 1945, and subsequent rise to power of the Communist-backed [[Provisional Government of National Unity]], the [[Second Polish Republic]] legally ceased to exist.<ref name=autogenerated1 /><gallery widths="220" heights="169">
File:Dubois w Sejmie. 1-A-849-4.jpg|[[Stanisław Dubois]] speaking to envoys and diplomats in the ''Sejm'', 1931
File:Beck przemówienie.jpg|[[Józef Beck]], Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivers his famous Honour Speech in the ''Sejm'', 5 May 1939.
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