Diversity and Cohesion of the Polish Parliamentary Parties

The Polish parliament after the 1989 democratic transition was dominated by male, middle-aged, non-technical intelligentsia. However, the level of diversification of MPs varied among the separate parties and this difference was the most pronounced between the old parties and political newcomers. The paper, based on quantitative text analysis of parliamentary speeches and analysis of the structure of the debates itself, together with roll call analysis, complemented by individual MPs’ background data, explores key factors weakening party cohesion and – in some cases – leading to party split or loss of parliamentary representation, and which part of the cohesion loss can be attributed to MPs diversity. I analyze MPs socio-demographic data and previous political experience as well as regional differences, controlling for the position of a party in the legislature, party structure, and ideological cohesion. Therefore, the paper answers several questions regarding the relationship between diversity and cohesion in the parliament: Are similar MPs speaking “the same language” (latent topic analysis) and voting in the same way (roll call analysis), especially when highly controversial issues are debated? In what ways does the diversity of socio-economic treats of MPs of the party influence the cohesion of the parliamentary representation when it comes to speeches and voting in the parliament? Moreover, are analyze in which situations such traits as age, gender, occupation, or place of residence, determine the political behavior in parliament in a way that is cross-cutting the party boundaries.