On the Way to an Initial Alignment - Institutionalization of Political Competition in New Democracies – the Case of Poland 1991-2011

In the post-communist democracies processes of regime change from communism to democracy were rather fast. It resulted in an unstable party systems during the first years after transition. Also, electorates were demobilised, there was a lack of ties between electorates and the parties, and sometimes voters were sceptical of the idea of the party itself (Rose 1995). In addition, the transformation of the economic system occurred in the same time. This, in turn, led to enormous changes in the social structure. This context was not conducive to building ties between political parties and voters based on social divisions, known as an allignment. However, after an initial period of chaos, it can be observed that the post-communist democracies, at least partially, matured. The volatility of party systems and electoral volatility was getting lower. Processes of stabilisation of social structure were also observed. In the proposed paper, it will be examined whether processes leading to an initial alignment occurred in the post-communist context, by looking at the presence of the class voting as a mechanism explaining voting behaviour. The paper will answer the question whether in subsequent elections political parties managed to mobilise voters concentrated in certain socio-economic groups. An alternative hypothesis is that in the early twenty-first century alignment was not possible anymore. The case of Poland in the first 20 years after the transition will be analysed. The analyses will be carried out on the basis of unique data of Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN) covering period 1988-2013.