Who Shapes Polish Politics? On Poles’ Electoral Activity (or Inactivity)

This paper presents a comparison of three groups of citizens, which I have defined as ‘winners’ (those who voted for the parties forming the government), ‘losers’ (those who voted for the parties becoming the opposition) and ‘the absent’ (citizens who abstained from voting). The goal of the paper is to answer the question of how these groups are similar in regard to ideological beliefs, preferences for specific sectoral policies, and socio-demographic characteristics. The results of the analysis are presented dynamically, in a diachronic perspective. The analyses are based on the Polish General Election Study data (study editions of the years 1997, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2015). According to the findings, the views, values, beliefs, and preferences of non-voters are sometimes surprisingly consistent with the views of the citizens who did vote. This means that non-voters have been represented in the Polish parliament by either the governing parties or the opposition parties. Hence, I argue that non-voters do not hold a position on the periphery of Polish politics. I also do not observe any trends demonstrating the increasing marginalisation of non-voting citizens in the Polish parliament.