Nowe partie polityczne w Polsce, Czechach i na Słowacji z perspektywy geografii wyborczej

Abstract

The aim of presented article is to examine regularities in the geographical distribution of support for the new political parties in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. At the beginning of the study, nationwide results of analyzed parties were compared with results achieved in territorial units. On this basis, the author created an indicator showing the average profit (or loss) of a new grouping in relation to the share of votes at the national level. Subsequently, the author calculated the Pearson's correlation coefficients to evaluate the relationship between results of new political parties in the first elections they gained parliamentary seats. The results of the analysis show that only in case of Czech Republic, it is possible to distinct the territorial units where citizens are more likely to vote for new parties. Nevertheless, most of differences in the geographical distribution of support for new parties in analyzed countries arise from three interrelated factors: the specificity of the territorial unit, ideological autoidentification of population inhabiting a particular territorial unit and popularity of party leaders.