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pressurizing the government to give more financial support for farmers. In the beginning of the1990’s Lepper himself had taken loans in banks and thereby bringing him in an almost insolubledebt situation. Thus Samoobrona mostly appealed to the medium size farms, the new classconsisting of rather well-off farmers who had run in debt in order to expand the farm or lease moreland and these well-off farmers were well represented in the party leadership and in the deputygroup in parliament 66 . Thus, most leaders of Sammobrona belonged to the group of rather well-offdebat-ridden farmers. Before 1989 many in the leadership of Samoobrona had even been membersof PZPR. Institutionally Samoobrona has been distinctly centralist with almost dictatorial power tochairman Andrej Lepper. The top-down deciscion making procedures evoked protest among localelected Samoobrona people and also inside the parliament group. Several defections from the partytook place in 2003.In the beginning of 2002 Lepper withdraw from the post as chairman, but only formally. Before the2001 election Andrzej Lepper had already run for the presidential election two times, at the 1995election only gaining1.3 pct of the votes, increasing the figure to 3 pct. in 2000. At the 1997election the share of the votes had been only 0.1 pct. At the elections in the 1990’s violent roaddemonstrations organized by Samoobrona became a barrier for election success. Opposite, at the2001 election those actions became an advantage for the party due to increasing social frustrationsin the Polish population.Opposite PSL Samoobrona obtained many votes in the bigger towns, in the last stage of the electioncampaign even gaining votes from former SLD supporters. The blackmail potential was great,opposite the coalition potential extremely low. As regards the EU membership Samoobrona hasfollowed an euro sceptic, but not totally negative policy line, also arguing for closer commercialrelations to Russia, including financial support for export of foodstuffs to Russia. The leadership ofSamoobrona included Tadeusz Mazanek, the leader of the association “No to the European Union”.Unlike Samoobrona, PSL followed a more euro-realistic line, and in the SLD-PSL governmentestablished after the 2001 election, the party persistently opposed concessions on sale of farm landto foreigners. Furthermore, the party has demanded minor independence for the National Bank, thatwas accused of a conducting a too restrictive monetary policy. The party put forward proposalsexpensive for the state budget, e.g. that debt of students at universities should be reduced andforgiven after five years in job in Poland. Economic populism has been striking, but not xenophobiaand anti-Semitism such as in the case of the extreme Right. Among those voting PSL a majorityconsists of men, opposite the voters of the Liga of Polish Families (LPR) that most appeals to femalvoters.Where Samoobrona literally worked extra-parliamentary, i.e. on the roads, PSL to a greater extent,and much due to higher party institutionalization, worked “through words”, being willing to enterpolitical compromises, working on regional and municipal levels and by putting forward proposalsin parliament. After the local and regional elections autumn 2002 Samooobrona in some casesdecided to cooperate with SLD. Later that cooperation was cancelled due to decisions taken in theSamoobrona leadership and in spite of protests from several Samoobrona local activists. In summer2003 17 Samoobrona deputies left the party. At least until the 2001 election PSL could benefit fromits greater organisational strength. To a great extent the differences on policy level between PSLand Samoobrona reminds us about the differences between the two right-traditionalist parties ZChN66 Barbara Fedyszak-Radziejowska, “Wies polska po wyborach:radikalizacja wyborów”, in: “Przyslosc polskiej scenypolitycznej po wyborach 2001”, Institut Spraw Publicznych, Warszawa 2002:62.:78
and PP. Those supporting Samoobrona neither trusted PSL or SLD and had to a great extent been“sofa-voters” at previous elections.Thus, support for PSL was rather low in the smaller towns. To some extent Samoobrona succeededin activating former “sofa-voters”. Opposite PSL Samoobrona at the 2001 election managed topenetrate the bigger towns, getting the votes from many unemployed and socially marginalized. Assaid, due to the participation of Samoobrona in the election the differences in voting behaviourbetween town and land became smaller. The support for Samoobrona has to be regarded as anactivization of the town-land contradictions that until the 2001 election had not been decisive. Onpolicy level Lepper talked about a “third way” for Poland that should be neither socialist norcapitalist.Seen over the period as a whole PSL has belonged to the rather successful class parties in theCEEC`s. That about one third of the Polish population lives in rural areas has clearly been anadvantage. The challenges posed by Polish agriculture has almost been of the same reach asovercoming the legacy of totalitarianism and real socialism. Before 1989 the farmers had been infront fighting against the old regime, after 1989 they became an obstacle for the modernization ofthe land districts and the reorganization of Polish society and thereby also a serious problem for theadoption to the EU.The cooperation in government with SLD-UP inevitably sharpened the conflicts betweenpragmatistis and fundamentalists. The results of taking part in government has not been appreciatedby the majority of the Polish farmers, a few months after the 2001 election about 75 pct. of thefarmers expressed the opinion that the new SLD-PSL government had not kept what it promised. Inother words it may be meaningful to distinguish between the “PSL” in government and the “activist(“roszczeniowe”)” PSL working outside the parliament and the official structures. The strongercompetition from Andrzej Leppers populist party movement Sammoobrona made an impact on thepolicy line 67 .2.14. Democratic Union (UD), the Freedom Union (UW) and the Civic Platform (PO)On the conservative-liberal end we find the Polish Freedom Union (UW), a sister party and modelfor the Czech Freedom Union (US). The Freedom Union (UW) was established in 1994 after amerger between the Liberal-Democratic Congress (KL-D) and Democratic Union (DU). Beforethat, ROAD, the greatest single group inside the Solidarity-movement and the forerunner ofDemcratic Union (UD) had itself been established as a amalgamation of different political clubs. Atthe outset Aleksander Halls Forum for the Democratic Right constituted the greatest single groupinside the Democratic Union (UD). After some time Aleksander Hall left Democratic Union (UD),in stead joining Election Action Solidarity (AWS), in which he became the leader of the liberalfaction SKL.From the beginning UD was divided in different non-veto policy creating factions. The presidentialcandidate for UD at the 1995 presidential election, Jacek Kuron, argued that the party did not needto concentrate its attention on the middle class that at that time was almost non-existing, but moreon what he called the “worker elite”. In stead , he said, the Democratic Union (UD) should bring theworkers on the big state enterprises a perspective and hope for the future. At the outset theDemocratic Union (UD) constituted a loose coalition of conservatives, liberals and social67 Se e.g. interview with Janusz Piechocinski, Gazeta Wyborcza 12 February 2002:12, “Dla kogo spiewa PSL”.79
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“This provisional situation chara
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marketisation and privatisationshor
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purposes, are channels for “expre
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the significance of strategic choic
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presidentialism gave rise to “flo
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antipolitics and reinforcement of a
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In the late 1990’s elections most
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determined primarily by “politica
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politics and antipolitics, all sign
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which attitudes to state regulation
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Anti-communism has been defined in
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elections and the Slovak communists
Page 28 and 29: Cartel agreementsbetter representat
Page 30 and 31: Basically the absence of clear cons
Page 32 and 33: After 1989 different types of polit
Page 34 and 35: complex project for transition unde
Page 36 and 37: window of opportunity in spite of s
Page 38 and 39: analyses of party institutionalizat
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Page 44 and 45: expected, much due to the many spli
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Page 50 and 51: whole, on the one side an authorita
Page 52 and 53: The economic recession and the grav
Page 54 and 55: election defeat more cooperation an
Page 56 and 57: The formation of AWS can be conside
Page 58 and 59: group. RS AWS constituted the Chris
Page 60 and 61: According to the original plans the
Page 62 and 63: values. According to Rybicki, as so
Page 64 and 65: AWS should fight against all types
Page 66 and 67: 2001 parliamentary election, howeve
Page 68 and 69: and workers voted ZChN. At the 1993
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Page 72 and 73: establishment like than LPR’s. Th
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Page 82 and 83: To conclude, the Freedom Union (UW)
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Page 86 and 87: such as KSCM and KSS in The Czech R
Page 88 and 89: The SLD leaders were mainly recruit
Page 90 and 91: the falling popular support for pri
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Page 96 and 97: Has the Left any freedom of manoeuv
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Page 100 and 101: The Labour Union (UP), Democratic U
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