Radoslaw Markowski, born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1957. Ph.D. from University of Warsaw. Professor of Political Science at Polish Academy of Sciences and Director of Center for the Study of Democracy at the Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Fellow (1 February 2013 – 30 June 2013)
European Elections, Political Cynicism and the Media
My project concentrates on the comparison between Western and Eastern European patterns of electoral behaviour and development of party systems, with special emphasis on the phenomena of political representation, apathy and scepticism.
The developments of party system institutionalisation and voting behaviour in the new member states of Central and Eastern Europe differ from the phenomena unveiled in the Western more stable democracies in several ways. For example, the turnout level in the European Parliament elections in these countries proved to be dramatically lower than in the old member states, in some countries (Slovakia and Poland) barely around 20%, and rarely exceeding 40%. This level of CEE citizens’ demobilization at EP elections calls for an in-depth scrutiny. What needs to be accomplished is to describe and explain the manifestation of CEEs’ phenomenon of ‘second-order’ election, its causes, character and differences vis-à-vis the Western prototype.
Selected Publications
Post Communist Party Systems(1999), Cambridge University Press [co-author]
Europeanizing Party Politics: Comparative Perspectives on Central and Eastern Europe 2011) Manchester University Press [co-editor]
“Euroskepticism and the Emergence of Political Parties in Poland”, Party Politics, 2010, 16 (4): 523-548