Suchergebnisse

The 2007 Polish parliamentary election is best understood as a plebiscite on the polarizing government led by the right-wing Law and Justice party and its controversial 'Fourth Republic' political project. The liberal-conservative Civic Platform opposition won because it was able to persuade Poles that voting for them was the most effective way of removing this government from office. The election also indicates that the 'post-communist divide' that dominated and provided structural order to the Polish political scene during the 1990s is passing into history and certainly means a more consolidated Polish party system. However, Poland still has very high levels of electoral volatility and low electoral turnout, together with low levels of party institutionalization and extremely weak links between parties and their supporters. This means that it is too early to say whether the election also marks the emergence of a stable Polish party system based on a new bipolar divide between two big centre-right groupings with the confinement of the left to the status of a minor actor. Adapted from the source document.

The 2005 Polish parliamentary and presidential elections were held on separate days, but the two campaigns 'contaminated' each other and the presidential contest largely overshadowed the parliamentary. The dominant issue during much of the campaign was probity in public life, and parties competed on their ability to tackle corruption effectively. The conservative Law and Justice party and its presidential candidate Lech Kaczynacuteski emerged as unexpected winners by framing the contest as choice of a 'social-solidaristic' or a 'liberal' vision of Poland. The underlying ideological divisions between Polish parties appear to be in some flux, as do the social bases of their support, and a realignment of the dimensions of party competition is one possible outcome. However, this apparent 'social versus liberal' dichotomy will not necessarily provide a long-term basis for political alignments in the country, and the old 'post-communist' historical and cultural divide apparently remains a significant orientation point for a substantial number of voters. Adapted from the source document.

The level & scope of state financial support for Polish parties have expanded progressively since 1989, making it the main source of income for a number of them. This becomes even more evident when one considers the allowances paid to party-based parliamentary caucuses & individual parliamentarians. Appointments to state & quasi-state bodies also appear to be an important source of patronage for Polish parties. The Polish party funding regime & state patronage opportunities clearly favour 'insiders' & have centralized power in party leaderships. However, the Polish party system remains too unstable to conclude that a 'cartel' of privileged insiders is emerging, while increases in state party funding have, at most, simply reinforced existing trends in terms of party leader orientation & popular anti-party sentiment. Tables. Adapted from the source document.