The opinions on changes in the Polish political system

In Poland, after 27 years of democracy, a discussion about changes in political system have been started. The public opinion researches shows not only lack of trust to the political institutions but also negative feelings towards most of them. The goal of the article is to analyse the preferences of each electorate in presidential and parliament elections in 2015 about two ideas: extending Presidential power and decreasing the number of Parliaments Members. Supporting the idea of increasing President’s rights are Andrzej Duda and Paweł Kukiz voters in presidential election, Law and Justice, Kukiz’15 committee and also small electoral committees electorate, people who don’t participate in the elections and also people declaring right wing political views. In all researches supporters of the idea to decrease number of Parliament Members are prevailing. The biggest support for it can be found among Paweł Kukiz followers in the first term presidential election and also in electoral committee Kukiz’15 in parliament election. They can also be found in those political parties and committees followers, which received small number of votes in the election and in people who didn’t take part in presidential and parliament election.

Key words:

presidential elections in 2015, parliamentary elections in 201, the constitutional powers of the president, reducing the number of deputies

Among all the elections organized in Poland, presidential ones are not only the most frequently attended by the voters, but also most eagerly investigated by the researchers. However, the studies concerning the importance of this particular voting is not often examined. On the one hand, there are arguments to classify it as first-order election, on the other, for certain reasons they ought to be regarded as second-order.The aim of this article is to answer the question whether 2015 Polish presidential election were of first or rather second-order importance. In his analysis, the author focused on the following issues: personal strategies, programme strategies, the course of the campaign in the traditional and new media, the level of electoral participation and the influence of the election on the course and outcome of the parliamentary campaign.

Key words:

Polish presidential election 2015, first order election, second order election

The article is an attempt to answer the question what role in political communication of the Catholic Church in Poland play the most important Polish Catholic opinion weekly magazines (Gość Niedzielny, Niedziela, Tygodnik Powszechny). Span of the analysis covers last 15 years. The research included the presidential campaign period in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. The analysis was conducted with regard to the articles published during the period of one month prior to the presidential elections. The author assesses to what extent the analyzed press titles were convergent with the official announcements of the Polish Bishops' Conference regarding the political involvement of the Catholic Church. It is important to find an answer to the question of how the Catholic press supported one of the candidates for the office of President of the Republic. Another important question that needs clarification is whether and to what extent journalists discussed electoral programs of individual candidates. According to the author, the results of research regarding political engagement of Catholic press in the four presidential campaigns are a representative sample to determine the role of the analysed Catholic press in political communication of the Catholic Church in Poland.

Key words:

political communication, Catholic Church, presidential election, catholic press

There is a common belief that the pro-regulatory approach of Democrats, makes them more determined in the fight against big money in campaign elections, whereas Republicans, supporting recent Supreme Court decisions in Citizens United v. F.E.C. and McCutcheon v. F.E.C., benefit from the system more than their political counterparts. The aim of the article is to analyze the real character of the U.S. campaign finance regulations, both from legislative and judicial perspective, and to determine which political party benefits from the system: Republican or Democratic? By underlining the Buckley rule that ‘money is speech’ the Author suggests that campaign contributions and spending are deeply rooted in the character of American political system determining the political future of candidates of both political parties. The article refers to election cycles since 1970s, but it mainly focuses on recent election cycles, including the 2016 presidential election.

Key words:

campaign finance, Republicans and Democrats, U.S. politics and law

The attitude of the Poles towards the events taking place after the Smoleńsk plane crash in view of declared political preferences

The plane crash in Smolensk on April 10th 2010, which entailed the death of 96 represen- tatives flying to commemorate the victims of Katyń, brought the spectre of deep mourning to the whole country. The death of so many people from political, cultural and military environ- ments triggered unexpected reserves of social solidarity. The article is an attempt to present reality after the Smolensk plane crash. Its aim is to verify a thesis that the plane crash was used for political purposes. The analysis of the research material is going to determine to what extent political preferences are a factor influencing the views of the people surveyed concerning the decision to transfer the memorial cross planted outside the presidential palace in Warsaw as well as to bury the presidential couple in Wawel cathedral in Kraków. The issues raised in the article are going to be examined in three areas: the presidential election, the parliamentary election, the regional election.

The aim of this article is to analyse Emmanuel Macron's 2017 and 2022 election campaigns. The first part of the article focuses on Macron's 2017 campaign, taking into account elements specific to election campaigns, such as election slogans, social media activity, the electoral programme, television debates, and describes the main themes of the election campaign, along with a discussion of the results of the first and second rounds of the election. An analogous analysis is then presented in relation to the 2022 election campaign. The issue of the war in Ukraine and its role for the campaign taking place at the same time is highlighted. The paper concludes by considering the differences noted in the two campaigns run by the leader of the En Marche!/ Renaissance.

The main category in this article is electoral presidentialization, understood as a tendency of voters’ behavior to mirror the decisions typical for presidential elections. Here, the category under consideration is analyzed in two dimensions: leader effect and social approval for the organization of television debates of the leaders of two most important parties. The author explains the process in question on the basis of quantitative and percentage distribution of answers to two questions to be found in three editions of the nation-wide electorate study “Political Preferences”. This article concerns voters’ preferences in a survey that was conducted just after the self-government election in 2018. In order to grasp the specificity of electoral behavior in this particular voting, the analysis was conducted in a comparative manner, and the subject of comparison was the 2015 election to the Sejm. The results of studies organized in 2012 and 2013, when no election was organized in Poland, were also referred to in a necessary scope.

Presented article is aimed at examining the emotional attitudes to candidates for the president of Poland among pro-systemic and anti-systemic voters in 2015 presidential election and showing the influence of campaign TV ads on these groups of Polish electorate. The research conducted by author reveals that anti-systemic electorate is less interested in politics and more likely to be influenced by electoral TV spots. The study also confirms the relation between emotional attitudes to political actors and political preferences. According to the results of experiment anti-systemic voters expressed more positive feelings towards candidates from out of the political mainstream, and the other way round, the pro-systemic electorate rather liked the candidates presented by parliamentary parties.

Key words:
political  advertising,  electoral  TV  ads,  emotional  attitude,  feelings  thermometer, 2015 presidential election in Poland, anti-systemic voters

Presidentialization of Electoral Face in Polish Parliamentary Election in 2015 year

In this article the author analyses the process by means of the quantitative and proportional distribution of answers regarding two questions. The first one concerns the leader effect and the second the social approval for television debates participated by the leaders of the two major political parties (the questions can be found next to the tables presenting the results of the study). In the research under consideration were used the same questions as in 2012 and 2013, when no nation-wide election was organized. The comparison of the results gathered in those “election-free” years and in 2015, when two important votings (presidential and parliamentary) took place may bring particularly interesting conclusions.

Key words:

presidentialisation, personalization, leader effect, electoral face, political parties

Poland held its first ever popular presidential election at the end of 1990. Since then four such elections have been held i.e. in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010. In the meantime the position of the president gradually evolved hence gi- ving rise to the question about which method for the election of the head of sta- te is most "appropriate". However, this issue was not an object of political de- liberation for the major Polish political parties of the last 20 years. Firstly, this resulted from the popularity of the presidential election within society, which was reflected in high turnouts (considering Polish reality). Secondly, especial- ly until the enactment of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997, no party wanted to run the risk of being accused of returning to the po- litical transition solutions adopted at the Round Table. Thirdly, until the be- ginning of 2010, the competition for the office of president was "reserved" for charismatic leaders or party leaders. lt was finally Donald Tusk, who decided not to contend for the presidential election of 2010 thus wanting to change the perception of the institution of president in the system of power and draw atten- tion and emphasize the role and the importance of a government with a strong (normatively and factually) prime minister as the leader.

The political message based on the results of the evaluation. The analysis of the example of the presidential campaign in Poland in 2015

The main research problem of this article is whether the political message, that was addressed to voters in the presidential election from 2015, was based on the results of the evaluations or of the socio-economic researches were conducted by the research centers. The political views and slogans, which were presented by the candidates for the President of Poland during the campaign in 2015, were analyzed to answer the main research problem. The theoretical framework of the evaluation and the process of evaluation researches on the example of the managing authority of the operational program were described in the first part of this article. The European experience of utilization the evaluation results by the political class and the analysis of the presidential campaign from 2015 in reference of constructing political arguments with the results of the evaluation were presented in the second part. The author concludes that the results of the evaluation were marginally used during the campaign. The political arguments, that were used by candidates for the President of Poland, were mostly limited to recall simple figures, expert and public opinion, although in some cases the politics referenced to the results of the studies and reports. However, it is impossible to conclude if one of these studies was an evaluation research.

Key words:

evaluation, research results, presidential election, election campaign

In most studies of voting behavior, political preferences are explained at the level of the “country, election, electoral cohort or individual voter” (Franklin 2004). Notably absent from these studies is the impact of voters living abroad. Their importance is not to be neglected, especially in democratizing states.

This research targets the predictions that lie behind the turnout and preferences of Romanian emigrants. Romanian Diaspora consistently votes for parties and candidates that promise reforms. This vote is associated with liberal economic policy preferences and support for minority groups. I test these hypotheses with elections results data from 2000 to 2016 coupled with data collected from Votulmeu.com an online Voting Advice Application from the 2012 parliamentary and 2014 presidential elections in Romania.

Key words:

emigrants, voting, policy preferences, Romania, Voting Advice Applications

Apart from persuasive function, TV political ads play also important role in obtaining information about candidates and political parties. The cognitive effect of TV political advertising is proved in American and West-European conditions. Presented article is aimed at examining whether TV political spots influenced on voters’ knowledge of candidates and parties contesting in 2015 elections in Poland. The results of research will be presented with reference to sociodemographic characteristics of electorate, political preferences and auto-identifications on left-right scale.

Key words:

political advertising, TV political ads, cognitive effect of TV political ads, 2015 presidential election in Poland, 2015 parliamentary election in Poland

The aim of the article was to present factors that determined voting behaviour of citizens in national elections in 2015 in the perspective of party and personal attitudes of the interviewees. Except for presenting conclusions that result from the course of the research process in the aforementioned range, also the elements that could have affected eventual responses of the interviewees were indicated. These include changes at the position of PO (civic platform) leaders, appearance of new political entities (Ryszard Petru’s Nowoczesna, Together Party, Kukiz 15), or unification processes on the political right, and partially on the left. Personal conflicts and ways of conducting the campaign that could have affected attitudes of voters were also indicated.

A complement to logical conclusions from the conducted research in the perspective of party and personal determinants of voting preferences were also analyses of whether election posters and billboards should be put in the areas that belong to churches. From the perspective of political options supported by citizens, and their attitudes towards the role of Church during electoral campaigns, the analysis of this phenomenon led to interesting conclusions.

Key words:

elections behaviour, presidential elections, parliamentary elections, personalization, electoral, Poland

In 2012 and 2013, in Poland, did not take place any national election. It was excellent perspective to lead comparison research. The subject of this article is presidentialization of electoral preferences. This process depends on situation, when style of parliamentary campaign has become similarly like presidential election and people focus on parties leaders competition. Usually presidentialisation increased without any changes of election rules. The Author focuses on two aspects: determinantes of decisions in potential parliamentary elections and opinion connected with organizing television debates during campaigns. In the article were compared preferences among electoral five main Polish parties. Results of the polls were compared with effects previous surveys (in 2012), which included two the same questions about presidentialisation. First question (about presidentialisation) apply to determinates of decision in potential parliamentary election. In every parties electoral more respondents choose 'party option' than 'leader variant'. The most questioned, who show party leader, find among Law and Justice (PiS) electoral (26,2 per cent). It could be predicted, because Jarosław Kaczyński (PiS president) is main party symbol and predominant person inside the organization. As surprise can be treated preferences of Civil Platform (PO) electoral. Here value of this ratings reveal 18,3 per cent. In comparison to previous survey (in 2012) it signifies decline about 2,4 per cent. Donald Tusk (the prime minister and PO leader) is the most important component of this party and his attitude was main factor of the winning of two last parliamentary elections (2007 and 2011). Second question apply to organization television debates in every elections. Among electoral every parties find more followers than oppositionists this solution. However in comparison this results to previous polls we can conclude about decrease amount of supporter this postulate. In reality, debatesbecame important element of campaign if politicians understand a role of this issues. But presently political parties and public opinion are not interested in this issue.

The 2014 European elections in Romania represented a test for the political parties preparing for the presidential elections at the end of the same year. Firstly, we analyze the political context in which the European elections took place. Since 2012 the changing governing coalitions have created an unstable party system with many politicians shifting party allegiances. Several high ran- king party officials were considered suspicious for corruption acts and this affected the nomination of candidates. Secondly, we show that although the ideological allegiance of citizens and political parties increased since 2012, the match between policy preferences of political party and their supporters continues to be remarkably low. Finally we discuss several effects of the European elections, including difficulties in appointing candidates and creating electoral coalitions for the presidential elections encountered by the center right wing parties.

Key words:
EP election 2014, party system, Romania, political competition, European Parliament

This part of the report describes two problems, which were included in both question- naires from 2010 and 2011. First issue asks about the time, when the voter made his decision for which political option he would vote for. Second problem concerns about factors, which determines for which candidate, he would choose. In 2010 we research this problem in refer- ence to Local election. This time our questions refers to candidates in elections to Sejm and Senate. We wanted to verify the trends we observed in Local and Presidential elections in Par- liamentary election. Obtained data in great part confirms conclusions from previous researches. Once again it turned out that majority voters was sure of their political preferences long before the voting, so they weren't susceptible to electioneering. Another observation, which was con- firm by the researches made in the end of 2011, relates to limited effectiveness of electioneering on voter. Our researches don't show any greater differences in factors, by which voter made his decision for which candidate he vote for in Parliamentary election.

The presented article explores the influence of TV political advertising on political images of candidates competing in the 2015 presidential election in Poland. For this purpose, the empirical research (N=507) to check the reactions to campaign spots among voters with different political preferences was carried out. The conducted research shows that political preferences significantly affect both the perception of political images and the emotional attitude to candidates. The study also confirms that political advertising has a moderate importance in creating the images of commonly known politicians. Interestingly, the obtained results prove that emotional attitude towards politicians are more permanent and resistant to change under the influence of advertising messages than political image characteristics.

Knowledge of the behavior of the electorate has both its social context, as well as eco- nomic. It identifies the social interaction on the behavior of politicians and the effects of their management, moreover reveals the motivations and determines of political sensitivity, the de- gree of social disapproval and indifference. Rationalize the cost of election campaigns, influ- ences the electoral strategies and the consequent publicity and promotion mechanisms. It also affects the way services are involved in the electoral processes of individuals and businesses. It has a number of theoretical ways of using its wide but especially a practical context. The municipal elections which are the subject of growing interest are identified in the broader electoral context, the connection with other acts of election: elections to the parliament, the European Union and in the end of the presidential elections. The media of social life more and more influence on the behavior of voters, receiving daily spectacle of self-presentation, per-manent verbalization of ideas and references to public opinion polls. Voter is willed or not to participate. This causes the increasing consistency of its behavior in the different types of elections.

This part of the report discusses three questions, included in the questionnaire about electoral behavior during presidential and local elections in 2010. First question asks about the time, when the voter made his decision for which candidate he would vote for in the First round in the Presidential election. Second question is about the factors, that decide in choos- ing particular electoral committee in Local elections and third - about the problem of how big and stable is negative electorate of Polish political parties. As can be seen from presented data, majority of voters was sure of their political preferences long before the beginning of Presi- dential campaign and those, who made their decision during it, in most cases, in it's first phase. The mobility of Polish electorate is reduced, also because of the largeness and mutual pen- etration of negative electorate and effectiveness of political agitation is also limited. Because of that voters political preferences are relatively stable, despite the Smoleńsk Crash and in- creasingly intense competition of party elites.