New, partly new or still the same. Party elites in Poland since the collapse of communism

Political parties and party systems seem to be extremely unstable in emerging democracies of CEE countries. Almost all elections bring parties, electoral coalitions or committees with new labels and identities. We anticipate that despite these changes there is a meaningful continuity in terms of party leadership, candidates, and parliamentary representatives. Even if party labels change, elites are still the same, and the instability of parties and party system is lesser than it is usually anticipated. We aim to test this hypothesis using the Polish case as an example. Starting from the 1991 election, perceived as a founding one, we compare party elites from election to election in order to find patterns of continuity and change. Using electoral and party registration data we trace persons involved in party leadership positions, general election candidates, and representatives. We then introduce a new index of elite continuity, taking into account different prominence of various kinds of elite positions. We also test several subsidiary hypotheses regarding factors influencing elite continuity and cross-party elite movements.