Spain and Poland: Elections, Political Parties and Political Culture

Spain and Poland: Elections, Political Parties and Political Culture Edited by Josep Mª Reniu Vilamala Małgorzata Mizerska-Wrotkowska

2013

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COLECCIÓN CIENCIA POLÍTICA

SPAIN AND POLAND: ELECTIONS, POLITICAL PARTIES AND POLITICAL CULTURE Edited by Josep Mª Reniu Vilamala Małgorzata Mizerska-Wrotkowska

© 2013, The authors © 2013, Huygens Editorial La Costa, 44-46, át. 1ª 08023 Barcelona www.huygens.es This publication was co-financed by the “Observatorio de los Gobiernos de Coalición” at the University of Barcelona and the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science at the University of Warsaw.

Observatorio de los gobiernos de coalición

Reviewers: 1) Albert Falcó-Gimeno (Juan de la Cierva Fellow, University of Barcelona) 2) Tadeusz Wallas (University professor, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) First published: April 2013 ISBN: 978-84-15663-19-5 Legal Deposit: B-10314-2013 Printed in Spain This book is in copyright. No reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Huygens Editorial.

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General Index

introduction.

Josep Mª Reniu Vilamala & Małgorzata Mizerska-Wrotkowska ....................

11

The Spanish electoral system, 1977-2011.

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Carmen Ortega Villodres & Giselle García Hipola.....................................

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1. Introduction.......................................................................

2. Describing the Spanish electoral system..............................

2.1. The electoral system for the Lower House....................

2.2. The electoral system for the Upper House...................

3. Electoral behaviour.............................................................

3.1. Electoral turnout..........................................................

3.2. Party and candidates´ choice........................................

4. The political consequences of the Spanish political system...

4.1. The disproportionality of the Spanish electoral system.

4.2. The fragmentation of the Spanish party system............

4.3. Government stability....................................................

5. Some final remarks..............................................................

6. Bibliography.......................................................................

13 15 16 20 21 21 26 31 31 37 40 41 44

The electoral system in Poland. Jarosław Filip Czub . ...

51

1. Characteristics of the electoral system..................................

51

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Spain and Poland: Elections, Political Parties and Political Culture

2. Voting behaviour.................................................................

3. The mechanisms of the electoral system and political implications................................................................................

3.1. The electoral system of the Sejm and the Senate...........

3.2. The electoral system for the office of President.............

4. Challenges for the future.....................................................

5. Bibliography.......................................................................

59 66 66 74 78 79

Parties and party systems in Spain.

...................................................

85

1. Characteristics of the parties: the catch-all dimension.........

2. The parties in institutions....................................................

3. Party problems....................................................................

4. Characteristics of party systems...........................................

5. The evolution of the general party system............................

6. Analysis of Spain’s main parties...........................................

7. Acronyms............................................................................

8. Bibliography.......................................................................

85 90 93 96 101 104 114 116

Cesáreo Rodríguez-Aguilera de Prat

Political parties and government in Poland.

...........................................................

123

1. The history of political parties in Poland.............................

1.1. Party democracy in Poland – issues and problems of development................................................................

1.2. The development of the legal institutionalization of political parties in Poland after 1989............................

1.3. The impact of socio-economic transformation on the development of the political scene...............................

2. The evolution of the party system: from incoherent multipartidism to moderate pluralism.........................................

3. The government and its process of formation......................

3.1. Procedures of government formation............................

126

Konstanty Adam Wojtaszczyk

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126 127 132 133 136 140

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General Index

A. Basic procedure.........................................................

B. First additional procedure.........................................

C. Second additional procedure.....................................

4. Challenges for the future.....................................................

5. Acronyms............................................................................

6. Bibliography.......................................................................

141 141 142 143 146 149

The political culture of the Spaniards.

Josep MÂŞ Reniu Vilamala. .................................................................

151

1. Introduction.......................................................................

2. The main features of the political culture of the Spaniards...

2.1. The orientations to the political system in general: legitimacy and dissatisfaction..........................................

2.2. The orientations to the own role in politics..................

2.2.1. Interest in politics..............................................

2.2.2. The subjective political efficiency.......................

2.3. The moderation as a central features of the political culture of the Spaniards...............................................

2.3.1. The distribution of ideological preferences.........

2.3.2. The Subjective National Identification...............

3. Spanish political culture in a compared perspective: the ESS. 4. Challenges for the future.....................................................

5. Bibliography.......................................................................

151 153

162 163 164 166 171 172

..............

175

1. The evolution of behaviour.................................................

1.1. Characteristics of the Polish political system before 1945............................................................................

1.2. The political culture of Poles during the Polish People’s Republic......................................................................

1.3. The political culture of Poles after 1989.......................

177

Political culture in Poland.

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153 158 159 161

Jadwiga Nadolska

178 179 187

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Spain and Poland: Elections, Political Parties and Political Culture

2.

3.

4.

5.

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Characteristic features of Polish political culture..................

2.1. Political participation...................................................

2.2. Affective attitudes – trust in political actors..................

2.3. Activeness of society.....................................................

2.4. Evaluation of the functioning of public institutions.....

European Social Survey.......................................................

Challenges for the future.....................................................

Bibliography.......................................................................

189 190 195 199 202 204 207 210

Information about the authors................................

215

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Introduction

This monograph is the result of an international research project conducted by the “Observatorio de los Gobiernos de Coalición” of the Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science, University of Barcelona, and the Institute of European Studies at the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science, University of Warsaw.

The aim of the authors was to present some selected aspects of the Spanish and Polish political systems as subjects of analysis, due to the common lack of academic studies on both systems.

The focus of the authors therefore embraces the electoral system, the political parties and the party systems and, finally, the political culture of both societies.

The structure of the book was conceived on the basis of a ‘mirror image’, meaning that all the aforementioned topics were discussed in light both of the Spanish and Polish experiences. As a result, the authors were able to find answers to the following questions: (1) which effects provoke the electoral system in Spain?; (2) what were the specific features of the Polish designing of the electoral system?; (3) which are the main problems of Spanish political parties?; (4) what conditioned the evolution of Polish

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Spain and Poland: Elections, Political Parties and Political Culture

political parties?; (5) what can we learn from the political culture of the Spaniards?; (6) how the Polish political culture has evolved?

We hope that this monograph will give the reader an insight into these aspects of the political systems of Spain and Poland. Although distant in geographical terms, many parallels can be found between these countries, and we strongly encourage all readers to consider these similarities.

Josep Mª Reniu Vilamala Małgorzata Mizerska-Wrotkowska Barcelona/Warsaw, February 2013.

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