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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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 present article aims to describe the relationship between political preferences of voters in different types of Polish elections (local, parliamentary, presidential) or of citizens inactive in the elections and their opinion on the integration of Poland with the EU as positive or negative. The results are based on a poll carried out at the end of 2010. The voters were asked about the political parties and groups they support in different elections (or specific persons