The aim of the article was to investigate whether the order of the candidates on the party lists has any significance and influence on the result of the election. The analysis is based upon the results of voting on regional lists four major political parties from the last four elections to the Parliament. The research found that the vast majority of voters vote for the leaders of the lists, regardless of the political options supported. If the candidate is placed lower on the list, he will get less votes from the Polish electorate. Therefore it was demonstrat-ed that the position of the candidate clearly determines his success in the elections. It was also observed that the chance of getting the mandate is dependent not only on the place occupied by the candidate, but also the percentage of support for the political party that he represents. It is important to note that the leaders of the party don’t get always the most votes from their list and not every ‘number one’ becomes a member of parliament.
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This study has two key aims. First, it explores the two main methods used in the Czech Republic to operationalize the concept of party identification. Second this study demonstrates the merits of both methods; and on the basis of this research proposes one of these party identification measures for use in future studies. This study builds on the classical conceptualization of party identification developed by the Michigan School, but also utilizes (1) reformulations proposed by the Revisionist School; (2) Macropartisanship theory; (3) the Social Identity approach; and (4) experience of using the party identification measure in Europe. Using the Czech Election Study of 2002 this research shows that estimates of partisanship are influenced by how the survey question is formulated. Thereafter, the relationship between the two main variants used in the Czech Republic is presented. This work reveals that use of a (prior) vote intention item leads to an ‘over estimation’ of partisanship when compared to the other partisan measure. Comparing estimates from the Czech Election Studies of 1996, 2002 and 2006 this article reveals that there is no simple association between party identification and voter turnout. In fact, it is better to think of party identification as having two components: (a) probability to vote; and (b) probability to support a party that elicits a sense of identity from voters.
So far Poland has experienced extremely high levels of electoral volatility, which indicated a lack of strong links between political parties and voters. Thus, the assumption may be made that the electoral decision in Poland is based on substantive reasons, such as, for example, the closest to voters solutions to the most important problems, proposed by political parties. However, since 2005, in Poland we have had a strong emotional polarization of the political scene. Two major parties – Platforma Obywatelska [the Civic Platform] and Prawo i Sprawiedliwość [Law and Justice] − effectively managed the political conflict (by reference to social solidarity and liberalism) and polarized the Polish political scene, using the social processes (increasing economic and cultural differences), divided the Poles into two camps and provided foundations to form identification with the party, which according to the theory determines the electoral decision, regardless of other factors. This article aims to answer the question whether in the light of changes on the political scene the Poles’ electoral decision is driven by substantive assessment of the party or maybe cultural wars in Poland contributed to creating a relatively stable identification with the party determining the electoral decision irrespective of other factors. Empirical analyses on the parliamentary election of 2011 reveal that existing in Poland identification with parties strongly determines the voting decision, weakening then the impact of other variables, including socio-demographic ones. Nevertheless, some voters make a rational decision and choose the party best reflecting their political beliefs, or vote strategically.
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