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Die polnischen Parlamentswahlen vom September 1993 brachten eine Konsolidierung der Demokratie in Polen mit sich. Wenn auch die Regierung der Solidarnosc-Parteien ihre Mehrheit verlor und postkommunistische Kräfte an die Macht kamen, so muß dies vor allem als Ausdruck gemäßigter Opposition und des Wunsches nach einem Kapitalismus mit menschlichem Antlitz verstanden werden. Extremistische Kräfte erzielten nur unbedeutende Resultate. Die Konsolidierung der politischen Parteien hat die extreme Fragmentierung des polnischen Parlaments beendet. Aufgabe der großen politischen Parteien ist es nun, nicht parlamentarisch repräsentierte politische Optionen zu absorbieren und so in das politische System zu integrieren. (BIOst-Wpt)

The article examines the role of European left parties in the politics of their countries and the European Union. The author of the article examines the main types of European left parties, their program goals and the electorate. Modern left-wing European parties in terms of ideological orientation are mostly representatives of social democrats, the Greens, democratic socialists and communists, which roughly corresponds to the left-wing party coalitions existing in the European Parliament, with the exception of communists of the Marxist-Leninist type popular mainly outside the EU. Based on the analysis of successes and defeats in elections in different countries, the author examines the reasons for the popularity or unpopularity of left-wing parties and their specific types among certain categories of the electorate, taking into account their age or membership in a particular social group, as well as their regional affiliation. It is noted that the Social Democrats are most popular in Western Europe, the Greens in Northern and Central Europe, and the Democratic Socialists in Southern Europe. In turn, in Eastern Europe, left-wing parties continue to be associated with communist ones. These regional political preferences of the leftist electorate largely reflect the differences in the perception of leftist ideas among residents of different regions of Europe. In this regard, the author also emphasizes different role of the left parties in the political process of different regions, whether it is the promotion of globalist ideas by the Greens in Western and Central Europe, or the reaction to economic crises in Southern Europe by democratic socialists. The author also notes the borrowing of elements of the programs of the left parties from each other in order to preserve the electorate. The impetus for this process, as a rule, is various political and economic crises, when the inability of the left parties in the ruling position to cope with the situation forces them to move to qualitatively new ideological positions, which the author of the article shows by the example of the radicalization of the Social Democrats in Western Europe or the socialist democratization of communists in Eastern Europe after the defeat in the Cold War.

On Thursday September 12, 2019, Shannon Manning spoke to our Political Careers Lecture Series. She spoke about her 20 years' experience in grassroots advocacy and communications. Shannon Manning serves as Senior Vice President of Advocate Engagement at DDC Public Affairs, a public relations organization which handles public and private sector PR. Shannon has played a […]

In this, the first major treatment of party identification in twenty years, three political scientists assert that identification with political parties still powerfully determines how citizens look at politics and cast their ballots. Challenging prevailing views, they build a case for the continuing theoretical and political significance of partisan identities.The authors maintain that individuals form partisan attachments early in adulthood and that these political identities, much like religious identities, tend to persist or change only slowly over time. Scandals, recessions, and landslide elections do not greatly affect party identification; large shifts in party attachments occur only when the social imagery of a party changes, as when African Americans became part of the Democratic Party in the South after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Drawing on a wealth of data analysis using individual-level and aggregate survey data from the United States and abroad, this study offers a new perspective on party identification that will set the terms of discussion for years to come