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The birth of a bi-polar party system or a referendum on a polarising government?: The October 2007 Polish parliamentary election

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 06:03 authored by Aleks SzczerbiakAleks Szczerbiak
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.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics

ISSN

1352-3279

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

3

Volume

24

Page range

415-443

Pages

29.0

Department affiliated with

  • Politics Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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