Poland (Mainly) Chooses Stability and Continuity: The October 2011 Polish Parliamentary Election

Abstract

This paper argues that the key to the centrist Civic Platform's victory in the 2011 Polish election, the first by an incumbent governing party in post-communist Poland, was its ability to generate fear about the possible consequences of the right-wing Law and Justice party returning to power. Although many of the Civic Platform's supporters were disappointed with its slow progress in modernising the country, most voters viewed the party as the better guarantor of stability at a time of crisis and continued to harbour deeply ingrained concerns about the main opposition party. The election appeared to provide further evidence of the consolidation and stabilisation of the Polish party system around the Civic Platform–Law and Justice divide. However, other factors pointed to the dangers of declaring that the Polish party system was ‘frozen’ around these two political blocs and suggested that it remained vulnerable to further shocks and re-alignments.