Compartmentalized Competition: The Managed Transitional Election System of Poland

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Abstract
The compartmentalized election system, negotiated for the 1989 Polish parliamentary elections, was a transitional, rather than a founding election within an authoritarian system transformation. Seats were allocated to seven compartments open to different contestants and employing different rules. Both the ensuing campaign and the electorate's response overwhelmed the intended limited competition, with the result that the election was transformed into a regime-choice election. As a further unintended consequence of the transitional election system, Poland became the first country in which a ruling Communist party was removed from power. The Polish election of 1989 illustrates an election system as a dynamic component occurring early within, rather than at the completion of, a longer process of communist system transformation.

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