Be Careful what you Wish for: Intra-Party Democracy and its Impact on Political Elites in Polish Political Parties

The process of crystallization of political behavior patterns has started with the widespread of democratic mechanisms in political and party systems in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The transition period was followed by the consolidation of party systems. It was the start of the stabilization of political processes similar to those of the mature Western democracies, as well as internal mechanisms of political parties. Democratic dimensions such as participation, competition, representation and responsiveness require bi-dimensional presence: inside political parties - intraparty sphere and between political parties, i.e. interparty arena (Hazan and Rahat 2010). The aim of this article is to examine the level of inner-party democracy, and above all, to measure the dimensions of democracy in the selection of candidates for election, with particular emphasis on the selection of leaders and political consequences of these intra-party activities. The article will offer an analysis of the selected political parties continuously present on the Polish political scene since 2001, as well as the new ones that emerged during the elections of 2015. It will enable the author to address the hypothesis that in parallel to the development of democracy in Poland, the internal party democracy of the Polish political parties has improved. The following research questions will facilitate this task: do mechanisms of democracy within political parties, like primaries, exist? If the answer would be in the affirmative, then what kind of mechanisms would they be? Are there any changes in the democratic mechanisms, e.g. candidate selection methods? If indeed there are changes in the way the selection methods (of candidates and leaders) work, then it would be followed by the question whether they lead to an increase of inclusiveness, turnout, representation of different social groups (e.g. women)? What is the impact of selection methods on the Polish political elites?