<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The legacies of former partitions are still visible in today’s Poland in the economy, society and politics. Our article integrates the historical and geographical perspective into the study of electoral behaviour in Poland. We conduct a geographical description of electoral results in the 2023 parliamentary elections and determine how economic and cultural attributes related to different paths of development associated with the former partitions are reflected in the apparent spatial differences. We distinguish between direct and indirect influence. It is indirect when differences in economic development (e.g. changes in agrarian structures) or cultural transformations (e.g. secularisation) resulting from former policies are reflected in different electoral choices. The influence is direct if belonging to a former empire determines electoral behaviour regardless of the economic and cultural determinants of the vote. We found that the influence concerns primarily the former Russian and Austrian regions. The analysis is conducted at the county (powiat) level.</p>
</abstract>

The legacies of former partitions are still visible in today’s Poland in the economy, society and politics. Our article integrates the historical and geographical perspective into the study of electoral behaviour in Poland. We conduct a geographical description of electoral results in the 2023 parliamentary elections and determine how economic and cultural attributes related to different paths of development associated with the former partitions are reflected in the apparent spatial differences. We distinguish between direct and indirect influence. It is indirect when differences in economic development (e.g. changes in agrarian structures) or cultural transformations (e.g. secularisation) resulting from former policies are reflected in different electoral choices. The influence is direct if belonging to a former empire determines electoral behaviour regardless of the economic and cultural determinants of the vote. We found that the influence concerns primarily the former Russian and Austrian regions. The analysis is conducted at the county (powiat) level.

Old Empires, Modern State: Legacies of Partitions on Voting Behaviour in the 2023 Polish Parliamentary Elections

University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw

SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw

Politics in Central Europe

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The legacies of former partitions are still visible in today’s Poland in the economy, society and politics. Our article integrates the historical and...

Old Empires, Modern State: Legacies of Partitions on Voting Behaviour in the 2023 Polish Parliamentary Elections

Published Online: Jul 23, 2024

Page range: 211 - 235

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2024-0009

Keywords
2023 elections in Poland, Central Europe, historical legacies, party politics, spatial analysis

© 2024 Michał Wenzel et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Old Empires, Modern State: Legacies of Partitions on Voting Behaviour in the 2023 Polish Parliamentary Elections

Published Online: Jul 23, 2024

Page range: 211 - 235

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2024-0009

Keywords2023 elections in Poland, Central Europe, historical legacies, party politics, spatial analysis

© 2024 Michał Wenzel et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
2023 elections in Poland, Central Europe, historical legacies, party politics, spatial analysis