The 2007 Parliamentary Elections. Continued disarray or consolidation of a new cleavage? Cover Image

Wybory parlamentarne 2007 roku – ciągły zamęt czy utrwalenie nowego rozłamu?
The 2007 Parliamentary Elections. Continued disarray or consolidation of a new cleavage?

Author(s): Mikołaj Cześnik, Radosław Markowski
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN

Summary/Abstract: A description of situation in the Polish political system after the 2007 parliamentary election constitutes the main purpose of the article. This system is analysed in a diachronic comparative perspective: the results of the 2007 elections are set against with those of the previous elections held after the collapse of communism. On the basis of the empirical data collected and appropriately analysed, conclusions are drawn on the condition of Polish democracy, the direction of its development, its progress in the process of democratic consolidation, and so forth. The authors follow the transformations of the main parameters of the Polish electoral and party systems which have occurred over the last twenty years and describe the results of the 2007 parliamentary elections in details. Their interest lies primarily in what is probably the most important event accompanying this voting, namely the quite unexpected and spectacular increase of electoral attendance, and they thus investigate, what caused this increase, who the mobilised voters were, and so forth. Their analyses led them to the conclusion that, after the parliamentary elections of 2007, the re-configuration of the party-political scene observed since 2005 and the patterns of rivalry established thereon, were re-inforced. It is too early to diagnose a split in the classic sense of the word, it should be noted, however, that the Polish society nurtures some potential of this nature. Empirical analyses indicate that this conflict and the related rivalry are becoming more and more institutionalised, which may transform it into a sensu stricto split.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 27
  • Page Range: 109-127
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Polish