THE IMPACT OF CLASS IDENTITY ON ELECTORAL CHOICES IN 1991-2001

In contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, the debate on class politics takes on a different form to that in the West - it concerns whether class divisions in creaseas the post-communist societies under go transition to the market system. Using Polish survey data, containing information on respondents voting beha ior in elections of 1991, 1994, 1997, and 2001, the Autors presents evidence on significance of social class on voting behavior. Results of log-linear analysis show that class membership does in deed exert a significant impact on voting behavior. Although it changed across the time, in 2001 it appeared no less significant than in 1991. Also the patterns of this association remained unchanged. On the whole our evidence suggests that in Poland a new dimension of social stratification known as in sociological literature 'class politics' - has emerged. At the same time, claims of the class basis of voting in Poland can not be exaggerated. The evidence presented here clearly indicates that the class-vote link in Poland is much lo wer compared with most of Western societies. Data from 17 countries found in allows to compare relative strength of this association European Social Survey 2002