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desire to increase the prestige of the Sejm within the governmental apparatus - to be more in keeping with its constitutional supremacy - is reflected in a new set of parliamentary bylaws and rules of procedure adopted on 28 March 1972 by the newly elected Sejm. This legislation stresses the standing rights of deputies to sit in on the deliberations of local government organs in their constituencies, to present interpellations on the floor of the Sejm, to direct questions to specific cabinet ministries and heads of agencies; it also charges these officials with responding in detail and within specific time limits. Above all, interpellations and answers, like the sessions of Sejm committees and plenary session of the Sejm as a whole, are to be published in full.
The Sejm is a member of the international Interparliamentary Union, whose periodic sessions are attended by Sejm representatives and which it sometimes hosts. Because this activity results in often close contact with Western and other non-Communist parliaments, it is generally conducted under tight Communist party control.
b. Executive
The Chairman and members of the Council of State are chosen by each newly elected Sejm at its first sitting. Although functioning primarily as a collective presidency, the Council of State serves as a legislative body as well, acting for the Sejm in the interim between plenary sessions. It legislates in response to party directives and approves measures on a "temporary" basis so that the government may proceed without waiting for formal action by the Sejm. The function of the head of state is exercised by the Chairman of the Council of State, a post held since March 1972 by Henryk Jablonski, who succeeded Josef Cyrankiewicz, a discredited holdover from the Gomulka regime. Although a PZPR Politburo member, Jablonski is politically uninfluential; he is a respected scholar, a former Minister of Education, and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
In addition to Jablonski, the Council of State in 1972 consisted of four deputy chairmen, one secretary, and 11 members. This membership as a whole is representational in nature and deliberately multi-party in composition. Unlike the strong presidential executive system of the United States and some other Western countries, the functions of the Chairman of the Council of State in Poland are more ceremonial than indicative of political power. Nevertheless, he is the only member of the council with theoretical as
FIGURE 2. Residence of the Chairman of the Council of State, Belvedere Palace, Warsaw (C) (picture)
well as some practical prerogatives. Over the years, membership in the council has come to be generally considered as a form of political semi-retirement. Although some members of the 1972 Council of State, in addition to Jablonski, are party Politburo members and two of these are also party secretaries. This suggests that under Gierek the council is to be imbued with a greater measure of prestige if not power, as well as indicating a desire for closer party supervision of its activities. Indeed, one of the Politburo members on the council, Franciszek Szlachcic, is probably Gierek's closest confidant within the new leadership.
Nevertheless, the powers of the Council of State remain largely formal, since it performs both its executive and legislative functions on the advice of the Council of Ministers. The constitution gives the Council of State supervisory powers over regional and local government, but these powers are severely circumscribed by the Council of Ministers, to whom the executive units of local government are responsible. The reform of the lowest levels of local government effective 1 January 1973 indicates some dilution in this supervisory function of the Council of Ministers, a factor that may become even more important in coming years if, as the regime has indicated, the current reform is to be followed by a similar overhaul of higher echelons of local government. As of early 1973, however, it was unclear whether these reforms would enhance the nominal supervisory powers of the Council of State as against those of the Council of Ministers.
In December 1957 the Sejm revived the Supreme Chamber of Control, a pre-war governmental control body which had been abolished by the 1952 constitution. The nominally five-member chamber is in theory directly responsible to the Sejm which elects
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