Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
5-2004
Abstract
Electoral systems are uniquely distributive political institutions that shape political outcomes, yet are themselves endogenously shaped outcomes of political choices. In Poland, party system development has involved not only parties adapting to electoral institutions in each election, but also parties modifying these institutions prior to every election. We model electoral system change as driven by partisan self-interest in maximizing seat share and test it in five episodes of electoral system change in Poland from 1989 to 2001, comparing parties’ support for electoral law alternatives to their expectations of seat shares from those alternatives. Data consists of opinion polls, roll-call votes, Sejm records, constitutional committee transcripts, and interviews with political actors who designed and chose the Polish electoral institutions. The findings clearly show that party support for each electoral law was closely linked to the perceived effect on that party's seat share, with this linkage growing more consistent over time.
Discipline
Eastern European Studies | Political Science
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
Journal of Politics
Volume
66
Issue
2
First Page
397
Last Page
427
ISSN
0022-3816
Identifier
10.1111/j.1468-2508.2004.00157.x
Publisher
The University of Chicago Press
Citation
BENOIT, Kenneth, & HAYDEN, Jacqueline.(2004). Institutional change and persistence: The evolution of Poland's electoral system, 1989-2001. Journal of Politics, 66(2), 397-427.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4003
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2004.00157.x