Polskie Archiwum Danych Społecznych

The aims of this study stem from innovative matching formal theory of voting in the national parliamentary elections with a unique data set on candidates in parliamentarian elections in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe in order to test specific hypotheses. The formal theory of voting is based on the game theoretical approach from which precise hypotheses are deduced. Theory tells us that by conditioning their ballots on policy outcomes, voters can use elections to control politicians. Presumably, politicians anticipate that they will be sanctioned for poor party performance, and thus have an incentive to implement policies, through their parties and other political units, that correspond to the preferences of the electorate. Does the system of repeated elections function as a mechanism of electoral control, and if it does, what factors influence its effectiveness? We consider this question in a broad context of studies on parliamentary elections. A main empirical contribution of study is the creation of a dataset on all candidates that stood for office in parliamentarian elections in selected countries of Eastern Europe. The dataset allows researchers to address the problem of who wins and who loses parliamentary elections in this region, among other research questions. We call these data, the East European Parliamentarian and Candidate Data (EAST PaC). These data consist of all candidates – not only winners, but also election losers – who stood for elective office in the national legislature in Poland, Hungary and Ukraine in all post-Communist elections. Poland is exceptional, for EAST PaC contains data from two elections during the Communist era, as well.