Suchergebnisse

The objective of this paper is an attempt to answer if non-competitive elections to commune councils in Poland may be the result of incumbency advantage of mayors. The author assumes, that the effects of incumbency advantage of mayors in influence not only the competition for the office of mayor, but also the entire local political scene. These effects may weaken the competitiveness of elections and lead to the cartelisation of local political scenes. In extreme cases, it may even cause the degeneration of political pluralism and lead to non-competitive elections at both the executive and legislative levels. The paper analyses relationships between the competitiveness of elections at the local level and the incumbency advantage effect as exemplified by a group of small communes with up to 20,000 inhabitants and presents the findings of the conducted research in the form of case studies of 18 localities representing six regions of Poland.

Participation of national and ethnic minorities in Polish political life after 1989The participation of national and ethnic minorities in Polish political life after 1989 is one of the achievements of democratic Poland. Tracing the history of minority participation in local and parliamentary elections after 1990 makes it clear that this history is dominated by the German minority. However, this does not mean that other minorities did not participate in political competition at the local, regional or national level, but rather that their participation was clearly more modest compared to the German minority. Participation in the political life of other minorities has mainly a local dimension, although these communities do not choose to participate in their own ethnic election committees. Perhaps their identity does not require confirmation in their political activities and preferences.