Tomasz Zarycki
Four dimensions of the center-periphery conflict in the Polish electoral geography.
Polish political scene as well as Polish electoral geography appear to have very similar two-dimensional structure. They are both based on two principal cleavages. The first one is the so called "Left-Right" dimension. It is based on the confrontation between the post-Communist Social-Democrats (SLD) and former anti-Communists represented by the ">Solidarity< Electoral Action" (AWS). In the last presidential elections of 2000 these camps were represented respectively by Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the winner of the election, and Marian Krzaklewski, the leader of AWS at that time. The cleavage is based to the large extent on the conflict over the interpretation of the historical past, especially the Communist period. On one hand the post-Communists demand the recognition of the positive aspects of their rule until 1989, on the other the Right is accusing them of treachery and collaboration with Soviets, considered as the occupants of country. Among several other correlates of the Left-Right cleavage one could mention the difference in views on the role of the Catholic church. While the Left demands a clear separation of the Church and the state, the Right sees Catholicism the a basis of Polish national identity, the Church as the main supporter of the anti-Communist opposition and in effects supports in the involvement of the Church in selected areas of the public life.
The second cleavage could be called the "rural-urban" axis since it is based on the confrontation between urbanite liberal intelligentsia and the peasants. The conflict has basically cultural character since the two groups differ in education, cultural capital, type of work and character of their social environment. However, this cleavage could be also seen as clearly economic conflict since the urbanites are mostly supporting liberal free-market economic program and are much better prepared to meet the challenges of the international markets. On the other hand, most peasants fear competition for their small, usually inefficient farms and have good memories of the state guaranteed prices under the Communist system.
In the regional dimension the first cleavage contrasts traditional, religiously active regions with less conservative and more urban regions with much younger and more mobile populations. The geography of this dimension of the Polish political conflict is strongly related to the historical patterns. Modern Polish electoral geography is especially related to the heritage of the 19 century partition of Poland. Let me remind that at that time present day Polish territories were divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia. The former Austrian zone is apparently most conservative Right-voting region. The Left is supported most often in the regions which belonged until 1945 to Germany. The population in that part of Poland arrived from other regions and lost many of its earlier traditions. In effect its is much less conservative and less religious.
The spatial dimension of the second cleavage of Polish politics, as I have already suggested, has the form of the rural-urban contrast. Liberal, well educated supporters of the Western-oriented parties as Freedom Union (UW), with intelligentsia as their core electorate, are concentrated in urban areas, especially big towns. On the opposite side we find petty peasants which are relatively numerous in Poland. They are located mostly in the Eastern Poland, and most of the supporters of the Polish Peasant Party (PSL) are concentrated in the former Russian zone.
I propose that these two dimensions of the Polish electoral geography could be interpreted as instances of center-periphery conflicts. What is called the Left-Right cleavage in the Polish context could be interpreted as a center-periphery conflict if Poland is seen as a periphery of the Soviet Empire. Those accepting the Soviet domination (so called Communists and their supporters) would represent the "central" option. Those challenging the Soviet domination, accusing Communist of collaboration with the enemies of Poland, wold represent the peripheral option in the framework of the Soviet block. Thus, conservative, anti-Communist regions could be labeled as political peripheries of the Soviet Union. Presently, although the Soviet domination is over since a decade, the persistence of the Left-Right conflict related to the historical issue mentioned above, could be seen as a case of freezing of a political cleavage. This is a well know phenomenon, when political cleavages live longer than the actual social, political or economic conflicts which lied at their bases.
The rural-urban conflict could be seen as an instance of the well known conflict between primary and secondary (in fact secondary and tertiary) economy (agriculture vs. industry and services). Thus, it seems to be quite logical that rural option could be considered as peripheral in the economic sense. In contrast, urban option would be defined from this perspective as central for obvious reasons - its support is concentrated in economic and cultural centers of the country.
Besides these two dimensions of the Polish electoral geography, which prove to have very high spatial stability despite changes on the Polish political scene, I propose to identify two others dimensions of the center-periphery conflict. The first one would be the ethic dimension. As it is assumed in the classic theory of nation state building, territories on which the standard, national culture, nation-wide political parties or central institutions did not managed to dominate the local political life, can be regarded as political peripheries. Thus in Poland two main peripheral regions in such sense could be identified. The first one is Upper Silesia, particularly the Opole region which is the main concentration of the German minority in Poland. The native population of Opole Silesia could be regarded as peripheral both before 1945 when the region was a part of Germany and the Silesians experienced their difference form Germans as well as in the Communist and post-Communist period when Silesians experience their difference form Poles and often declare German nationality to which they are formally entitled. The other ethnically peripheral region is located in the North-Eastern Poland, east of city of Białystok. It is inhabited by the Orthodox population, often referred to as Belarussian. However, despite obvious cultural ties with Belarussian culture, according to surveys majority of the Orthodox population declares Polish nationality and religion remains the main element of their distinctive identity.
Finally, the fourth dimension of the center-periphery conflict in the Polish electoral geography could be seen in the map of voter turnout. It was suggest long time ago that participation in the national elections could be regarded as an indicator of "mobilization of peripheries" of a given country. Thus, the regions with the lowest voter activity could be regarded as peripheral, while the most active in elections as central. In case of Poland selected rural areas in the former Russian partition zone would be most peripheral. The most active are big town all over the country and rural areas of the former Prussian and Austrian zones.