Poles born in the 1960’ and in the first half of 1970’ are significantly less prone to turn out in elections after 1989 compared to all other generations. Notably, this generational effect holds true only for Poland and not for the other countries in the region (Linek and Petrusek, 2016). This paper aims at assessing the reasons behind the lower propensity to cast a ballot of these Polish cohorts. Data from all modules of CSES surveys, CEU 1992 and 1994, and POLPAN panel data are used to test several explanations. I begin by exploring whether these cohorts are different both from other Poles and from their regional peers in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and also of attitudes important for electoral turnout. Next, I test for the hypothesized negative effects of political socialization during the turbulent transition years on turnout propensity, both in term of economic insecurity and political instability. Finally, I assess the premise that the suppression of the non-institutionalized mobilization of the Solidarity movement in the 1980’ and the subsequent boycott of the communist era elections are behind the lower turnout rates among these cohorts. My preliminary findings suggest that these cohorts consist of capricious voters rather than habitual non-voters expelled from the electoral arena by political socialization during demobilizing times.
