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State Management in Times of Crisis: Perception of the Government's Policy of Counteracting the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland

: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought entirely new challenges to state crisis management. Until then, none of the governments had faced the need to stop almost all social and economic life. The fight against the pandemic required the introduction of numerous restrictions limiting mobility and interpersonal contacts. Initially, people did not widely deny their necessity, but over time parts of society protested increasingly against further restrictions. In this article, we check whether party preferences and socio-demographic features influenced the assessment of the Polish government's actions to counter the pandemic's spread. For this purpose, we develop a 10-item anti-COVID-19 activity (ACA) scale consisting of a general assessment of COVID-19 counteracting activity and evaluation of its various dimensions (e.g., online education, health care system, vaccination system and help for entrepreneurs). The research confirms a significant difference in how government activities are perceived in relation to political preferences and gender. The study participants negatively assessed the anti-COVID policy. Furthermore, men and voters of the Confederation turned out to be particularly unfavorable to the government's actions.


Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has changed almost every aspect of society's everyday life. It prompted researchers not only to undertake research strictly related to the medical aspects of COVID-19, but also to show the impact of the pandemic on the social behavior of individuals as well as the media Olszanecka-Marmola, 2021) and political reality (Lalot et al., 2022;Woods et al., 2020). The pandemic forced government officials almost all over the world to introduce various types of restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus. Research conducted in Western democracies shows that political preferences play a role in compliance with restrictions (Howard, 2022;Kiviniemi et al., 2022;Leventhal et al., 2021) and willingness to vaccinate (Cowan et al., 2021;Fridman et al., 2021;Milligan et al., 2021). Similar relationships are also diagnosed in Poland, where particular party preferences determine the approach to the pandemic and anti-COVID-19 restrictions. Among the party electorates, voters of the right-wing Confederation show the greatest aversion to preventive behavior (Maj & Skarżyńska, 2020), vaccination (Głowacki, 2021) and COVID-19 restrictions (Roguska, 2021). They also indicate least trust in the recommendations of scientists (Sadowski et al., 2021) and extensive confidence in COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs (Czech & Ścigaj, 2020;Pankowski, 2020). Thus, MEPs from this party have consistently tried to capitalize on these sentiments by not respecting restrictions, denying the danger of a pandemic, and participating in demonstrations against the COVID-19 limits (Sitnicka, 2021).
In this article, we propose a slightly different approach to analyzing the perception of government actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contrary to other studies, we do not treat the assessment of government policy as a one-dimensional variable. Instead, we create the anti-COVID-19 activity (ACA) scale. This 10-item measure consists of an evaluation of general  counteracting activity, as well as an assessment of various dimensions (e.g., online education, health care system, vaccination system, help for entrepreneurs). The main goal of the research was to determine the public sentiment toward the Polish government's COVID-19 pandemic response policy in relation to party preferences, gender, and place of residence. At the beginning of the article, we present the legal basis of the crisis management system in Poland and the schedule of restrictions introduced by the government in 2020-2021. This reflection is the background to the section presenting the research results relating to assessing of government policy in COVID-19 counteracting.

Crisis management in Poland
According to article 2 of the Crisis Management Act (2007), crisis management can be defined in the light of Polish law as follows: "Crisis management is the activity of public administration bodies that is part of the management of national security, which consists of preventing crisis situations, preparing to take control over them by means of planned actions, reacting in the event of crisis situations, removing their effects and restoring resources and critical infrastructure." Crisis management usually refers to a situation resulting from a threat, leading as a consequence to the rupture or significant weakening of social ties, while at the same time seriously disrupting the functioning of public institutions, but to such an extent that the measures used to ensure and restore security do not justify the introduction of any of the states of emergency provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
Crisis management in Poland at the central level is carried out by the Council of Ministers. In special situations, they are exercised by the minister of internal affairs, using the Government Crisis Management Team and the Government Centre for Security. The government appointed local representatives respond to crises with help from provincial teams and crisis management centers. At the local level, elected officials and the head of the executive oversee crisis management with the help of local crisis management teams and crisis management centers.
Crisis management in the administration is an integral part of national security. It plays a fundamental role in resolving crises under time pressure. It counteracts threats and prepares the country in the event of their occurrence and maintains or restores stability. A responsibly organized and dynamically operating national security system should ensure the constant functioning of society in unexpected and crisis situations, regardless of the source of the threat.
The Polish national security system is an internally coordinated set of organizational, human and material elements aimed at counteracting threats to the state. The political responsibility for this task lies with the public authorities, in particular the government and parliament. These authorities are responsible for preparing the legal instruments, procedures and operating rules of the system. It is based on three essential pillars: diplomacy, military, and civilian readiness. Managing national security is a continuous process, involving both actions taken during the absence of threats and also when a specific threat appears.
The organizational structure of the national security management system is hierarchical.
Decisions are always taken at the level of central authorities, and then they are forwarded to individual ministers, local government administration, and then to all or specific entities of local government and other organizational units included in the system of managing national security. According to article 232 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (1997), "In order to prevent or remove the consequences of a natural catastrophe or a technological accident exhibiting characteristics of a natural disaster, the Council of Ministers may introduce, for a definite period no longer than 30 days, a state of natural disaster in a part of or upon the whole territory of the State. An extension of a state of natural disaster may be made with the consent of the Sejm." A state of emergency can be imposed both throughout the country and in the selected area. Its purpose is to restore conditions to the normal functioning of the state. Detailed issues related to the state of emergency were regulated in the State of Emergency Act (2002).
A state of emergency may be introduced on the basis of a decree of the Presidentat the request of the Council of Ministersin the event of a threat to the constitutional system of the state, the security of citizens or public order. The President may declare a state of emergency for no more than 90 days, butin a justified casethis period may be extended by another 60 days.
When the reasons for which the state of emergency has been extended cease to exist, the President may lift it before the expiry of the period for which it was originally supposed to apply.
The government again requests that the duration of the state of emergency be shortened, and if the President agrees, it issues an appropriate regulation.
In accordance with article 231 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (1997), the Regulation on the introduction of martial law shall be submitted by the President of the Republic to the Parliament within 48 hours of signing the regulation. The Parliament shall consider the President's decree and may repeal it by an absolute majority of votes in the presence of at least half of the statutory number of Deputies.

COVID-19 pandemic in Poland
The first case of COVID-19 was reported December 1, 2019, and the cause was a then-new coronavirus later named SARS-CoV-2. In Poland, from January 31, 2020, the National Institute    After the temporal lifting of some restrictions due to the increase in infections and deaths in August, it was decided to implement additional restrictions to 19 counties with the largest increases in infections in Poland (Ministry of Health, 2020b). Greater restrictions were in force in counties marked in red. Milder rigors occurred in counties marked in yellow. In the counties marked with green, there were no changes in restrictions.
Whole Poland was included in the yellow zone on October 10. In addition to the yellow zone, which covered the whole country, there was a red zone in 6 cities and 32 counties. In response to the deteriorating disease situation in the country, the Minister of Health announced the opening of a temporary hospital in each province (The whole country covered by the yellow zone, 2020). These hospitals were to be built in spacious places such as stadiums or halls and were to provide an additional hospitalization place for COVID-19 patients in each province. The The easing program began on May 1 and lasted until May 29.

Methods
In the presented study, we used an online survey method. Due to pandemic restrictions, the survey was only available to respondents through social media. We published the questionnaire on a dozen Facebook groups that gathered supporters of different Polish political parties.
Respondents anonymously and independently (without an interviewer) filled out the research instrument concerning socio-demographic variables (gender, age, level of education, dwellingplace), political preferences, and 14 research questions about government actions counteracting the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarding the research questions, respondents determined their positions on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("definitely not" or "definitely negative") to 5 ("definitely yes" or "definitely positive"). To pretest our questionnaire, we firstly conducted the pilot study, which took place from April 13 to April 20, 2021. After the pilot was completed, the actual research lasted from May 11 to May 31, 2021.
During the study, additional restrictions were lifted concurrently and the pandemic accompanied Poles for more than a year. The mood of society was noticeably changing at the time in the face of various controversies related to combating the pandemic. The survey was supposed to examine the scale of respondents' negative attitudes toward the government's actions, as well as their general attitude toward controversial issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines or feelings toward remote learning. To summarize, the study sought to determine society's position on various aspects of daily life in pandemic realities while also seeking what factors influenced them.
The main hypothesis of the study was that the vast majority of respondents would have a negative attitude towards the government's actions, the introduced restrictions, and the general situation in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we put forward three detailed hypotheses relating to party preferences and socio-demographic variables: The total number of people who participated in the survey was 485. While analyzing the results, we removed survey fillings that presented extreme and contrasting positions that exceeded the logically acceptable norm. The study's final analysis also excluded people under eighteen and those without voting rights. Following the reduction, the number of fillings considered in the survey results fell to 401 respondents. A detailed description of the study sample is included in Table 3.

Results
The research confirms a negative perception of the actions of the Polish government during the COVID-19 pandemic diagnosed in public opinion polls (Roguska, 2021). The respondents were particularly pessimistic about the government's general activities, help for entrepreneurs offered by the government, and the functioning of online education. They also declared little trust in government announcements regarding the number of infections, deaths, immunization, and vaccines. Although most study participants expressed a desire to be vaccinated, they criticized the existing COViD-19 restrictions, considering them contrary to the Polish constitution. Interesting results came from questions regarding the closure of various institutions due to pandemic. Study participants vehemently opposed the government shutting down of private businesses (e.g., gyms or restaurants). At the same time, however, they agreed to do that with places of religious worship. It is probably related to the progressive secularization of Polish society, especially in the youngest generations. Research shows that this secularization mainly concerns the behavioral aspect and manifests itself in lower participation in religious practices (Grabowska, 2021).  2.23 (.85) city up to 20,000 inhabitants (n=23) 1.89 (.78) city between 20,001-100,000 inhabitants (n=83) 2.11 (.71) city between 100,001-200,000 inhabitants (n=73) 2.19 (.73) city with more than 200,000 inhabitants (n=165) 2.28 (.75) Source: own study (n=401).

H3: Political preferences differentiates the assessment of the government's actions in
counteracting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the small number of voters for some formations, in this part, we only analyzed the results of the four opposition parties. A one-way ANOVA confirmed a significant effect of political preferences on assessing the government's actions in counteracting the COVID-19 pandemic

Discussion
The results of our research are consistent with the public opinion polls, indicating a rather negative assessment of the Polish government's actions aimed at counteracting the COVID-19 pandemic (Roguska, 2021). Importantly, it may be influenced not only by objective factors but also by the feelings of the respondents who, after a year from the pandemic's beginning, were undoubtedly tired of the restrictions and wanted to return to everyday life.
We also confirmed that, similar to Western democracies, party preferences significantly differentiate the attitude to government actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic issues may generate support for some parties, in Polish conditions primarily for the Confederation. Thus, the representatives of this party in recent years have emphasized the antipandemic messages the most, not only denying the pandemic itself, but calling for criminal liability of the Minister of Health.
While this study marks an essential voice in scientific considerations about the political consequences of COVID-19, some limitations must be mentioned. In particular, we are aware of the sampling limitations. We used this research procedure to ensure safety in pandemic conditions. As a result, however, our sample included a few supporters of the ruling Law and Justice party. Considering the opinion polls, we can assume that if more Law and Justice voters were included in the sample, the effect of party preferences on the assessment of anti-COVID policy would be even more substantial.