Pro-Western Attitudes in the Five Central and East European States: Electoral Behavior

This article examines electoral behavior in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, the Baltic States and Ukraine). The main aim is to analyze electoral behavior in particular sub-national territories in order to discover differences and common trends in the countries examined. The article discusses interconnections between socio-economic, ethnic, and cultural characteristics of particular sub-national territories and the attitudes of their inhabitants expressed in voting results and opinion polls. The factor of post-World War II immigration (historic immigration) seems to still determine regional culture (including political preferences) in all the countries under consideration. The specific details of electoral behavior are analyzed using quantitative method. This method helps to examine the results of parliamentary and presidential elections and EU accession referenda of 2003. Correlations between independent and dependent variables repeated in a number of measurements show certain tendencies within each examined country. The totality of such tendencies demonstrates common trends of electoral behavior in post-communist space.