Przegląd Geograficzny (2023) vol. 95, iss. 1
Durability of the spatial differentiation characterising voting behaviour in Central and Eastern European countries
Przegląd Geograficzny (2023) vol. 95, iss. 1, pp. 57-83 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2023.1.3
Abstract
The main objective of the study was to identify the main phenomena and processes related to voting behavior in selected Eastern European countries (Poland, Romania, Lithuania) after 1989.
The political and economic changes, which started some 30 years ago, triggered off the process of transformation of the post-communist countries from the socialist economy, centrally steered, towards the market economy – liberal and open to the global processes. This transformation was accompanied by the dynamic political and social phenomena, culminating with the entry of the majority of countries of Central-Eastern Europe to NATO and to the European Union.
After almost half century of slavery under various kinds and stages of the communist system, the societies of this part of the continent regained complete freedom and could at last decide of their own future. Democratisation of the personal and public life was expressed, in particular, through the freedom of formation of the political, social and economic entities.
One of the very important consequences of the collapse of the communist system was the introduction of free elections institution. Despite the decades of communist unification, it has revealed differences in terms of political sympathies. This variation also had its spatial dimension. One of them was the distinct differentiation in voting behavior between cities and rural areas. Differences are also visible within the latter. Societies affiliated to the socialized sector in agriculture differ from those where individual farming survived. Rural areas with a lower share of agricultural functions (suburbanization, semi-urbanization) also have its distinct character. Significant differences in voting behavior are also evident in the case of national minorities and other ethnic groups.
Variability occurred not only in space, but also in time. The change of influence of individual parties or political options from one election to another is a normal phenomenon. However, there are more durable changes that have a generational character. The researched period is clearly divided into two intervals. In all of the countries here considered it is possible to note similar, although regionally differentiated, tendencies. Thus, in all of them the period after 1989 can be divided up into two parts. The first of these parts, which can be called post-communist, was characterised by the dispute between the centre-right, mostly originating from the anti-communist opposition (the dissident movements), and the groupings, originating from the communist formations. The latter would come to power mainly owing to the support from the inhabitants of the rural areas. The second period is undoubtedly linked with the change of generations. People, who matured under communism, were replaced by those, who grew up during perestroika and democracy. The historical dispute between the communists and anti-communists ceased to be of primary importance. Current problems and new challenges turned out to be more significant. This brought about a reshuffling on the political scene in all of the countries considered. The parties of the post-communist left lost in importance (in Poland and in Lithuania) or underwent a deep transformation (Romania). The change took also place within the political centre-right and was most frequently linked with the reordering of the groupings existing until then and the emergence of the new ones.
This change, though, has not exerted a significant influence on the shape of the already developed spatial differentiation of the electoral behaviour within the rural areas. Most frequently, the support for some parties was replaced by the support for the other ones, in direct reference to the existing spatial differentiation. It can be therefore supposed that the political divisions got inscribed into the persisting spatial differences, having developed owing to the long-term processes. In view of this, the individual communities displayed different susceptibility to the rhetoric of the particular parties or candidates.The communities associated with farming, and especially with the large-scale socialised farming, remained under the strong influence of the post-communist parties. Those communities, which were associated with family farming or developed non-farming activities, were more prone to accept the arguments of the centre-right parties. It also appears that higher support for the post-communist left was observed among the communities from the areas having belonged in the past to the states less connected with the traditions of the western civilisation (like, e.g., Moldavia and Walachia in Romania, or the Western Lands and the former Congress Kingdom in Poland). This was, anyway, also very often associated with the greater susceptibility of these communities to the development of the socialised farming during the communist time. On the other hand, support for the centre-right was more easily generated in the communities, which were in the past more tightly linked with the western civilisation (e.g. Transylvania in Romania or Galicia in Poland), which, as a rule, remained less affected by the communist model of farming.
The nature of the differentiation considered is debatable. One can analyse the socio-economic (structural) conditioning, the influence of the separate civilisation models (methods of organising collective life), or simply the degree of developmental maturity of the given society. These factors can be, anyway, strongly mutually linked in many cases. The social capital (and the associated economic and cultural capital), often indicated by the scholars as an important differentiating factor, might also be treated as a derivative of the action of these factors. Irrespective of the essence of the observed differences, they are, beyond doubt, the effect of differences in the conditions shaping the circumstances of life and activity of the particular communities. Shaping, often over centuries, the separate characteristics of the particular areas and the populations, inhabiting them, these conditions caused, also in the more recent times, and even within the same political units, somewhat different directions of development of the local communities. This kind of differentiation, in turn, was expressed, as well, in the diversified political sensitivity and the associated electoral behaviour patterns. The reaches of the developing differentiation define in the particular countries considered a network of various kinds of informal boundaries, separating the different intensity of phenomena of varying nature. Within the rural areas of Poland and Romania an important role is played by the relict borders, the zones of influence of the large urban centres (of the urban lifestyle) and the ethnic borders (often following the relict borders). In the case of Lithuania, where pronounced relict borders are weaker and fewer, the differences in the voting behaviour are primarily due to the reasons of ethnic, socio-economic (the reach of influence of the urban centres), and in some cases also natural character (like, e.g. the natural conditions for farming activities).
Keywords: elections, electoral behaviour, spatial differentiation, informal borders, Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), Poland, Romania, Lithuania
[mar.kow@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. S. Leszczyckiego PAN
Citation
APA: Kowalski, M. (2023). Trwałość przestrzennego zróżnicowania zachowań wyborczych w krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej. Przegląd Geograficzny, 95(1), 57-83. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2023.1.3
MLA: Kowalski, Mariusz. "Trwałość przestrzennego zróżnicowania zachowań wyborczych w krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 95, no. 1, 2023, pp. 57-83. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2023.1.3
Chicago: Kowalski, Mariusz. "Trwałość przestrzennego zróżnicowania zachowań wyborczych w krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej". Przegląd Geograficzny 95, no. 1 (2023): 57-83. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2023.1.3
Harvard: Kowalski, M. 2023. "Trwałość przestrzennego zróżnicowania zachowań wyborczych w krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 95, no. 1, pp. 57-83. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2023.1.3