Krzysztof Jasiewicz

Returning to Europe or Staying in One's Hamlet? Cultural Identity and Social Stratification as Factors in the 2004 Parliament Elections in Poland

February 15, 2006

Abstract

This paper explores both ideological and structural sources of pro- and anti-European attitudes in Poland. The data used in the analysis come from a post-election survey commissioned by the author at the CBOS polling institute after the June 2004 election to the European Parliament. The findings indicate that the position people of Poland have adopted toward the EU has been shaped by factors different that their attitudes toward the major political actors of the 1990s: politics of identity have seemingly lost ground to concerns related to one's position in social stratification. Yet the impact of this position is still relatively weak and filtered through the prism of one's personal experiences and perceptions: the best predictor of attitudes toward the EU is, by far, one's assessment of the political and economic changes in Poland since the 1989 breakthrough.