Poland

The polish party system has evolved from having been an extremely fragmented one to a moderate pluralist one. Up to 2005, the main political cleavage was that between post-communist and anti-communist parties. There was also a left–right dimension of political competition, but it was the ‘old regime’ divide that constituted the basic axis of political conflict. Coalitions were formed either by the successor party (SLD) or by the post-‘Solidarity’ parties. All cabinets between 1993 and 2005 were minimal winning ones. Since 2005 two parties with ‘Solidarity’ pedigree compete with each other for the victory in parliamentary elections. On the left–right spectrum, they both represent the ‘right’. The left has been marginalized. Socioeconomic and socio-cultural conflicts between the nationalist-conservative PiS and the liberal-conservative PO have dominated the electoral and parliamentary arenas. Also, after 2005, minimal winning coalitions led by either PiS or PO have prevailed, but new forms of cabinets have appeared. In 2005, a single-party cabinet was formed by PiS. In 2006, a support party agreement (the so called pakt stabilizacyjny) was signed by PiS and two small, populist parties. After a few months, the coalition was formalized in a regular coalition agreement. Within the same time period, from the turn of the millennium, the two large parties have both practiced a governance model with prime ministers dominating internal procedures and mechanisms. Another regularity is that the largest parliamentary party always forms the cabinet, either on its own (rarely) or in alliance with smaller parties. Also, junior parties in the coalitions are likely to be punished rather than awarded by the electorate. Notable is that formal coalition agreements have been signed by coalition partners since 1993. They are programmatic as well as procedural and contain not only distribution of portfolios but also the rules of resolving intra-coalition conflicts.