In my previous blog, I talked about how the socio-economic status of the Polish citizens have an influence on the political literacy and political participation. However, it can also be looked at from a different perspective: How does the political instability in Poland affect the political literacy of citizens.

What are the reasons for this political instability?

I found that this political instability can be seen in the elections of 2015, when the Law and Justice party became the first single-party government after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. First of all, it was very unusual that the previous government was voted out of office, since they brought positive economic results forth. In addition, the elected party was considered to be national-conservative, very Eurosceptic and brought the public media and the Constitutional Tribunal under the control of the government.

Now let me tell you, the political instability in Poland did not just occur after the elections in 2015 but have existed since the communist regime took over control after the end of World War II. This permanent instability is caused by the legitimacy crisis, which is determined by the citizens’ support for politics, which is based on similarity of norms and values of the citizens and government. In her blogs, my colleague will explain the effect of norms and values on the political literacy in greater detail.

How does this political instability influence political literacy?

Now, the political instability as a result of the legitimacy crisis is not only affected by a discrepancy in norms and values. The Polish government had control over the information flows. This means that all controversial topics or embarrassing information about the state was prohibited and censored. Therefore, the political literacy of the Polish citizens was very low.

Moreover, this can also be perceived in the blog of my colleague, which argues that the low participation rates are the result of restriction of free public media and the restriction of free speech. Therefore, there is no environment to improve the political literacy for Polish citizens.

In addition, I found that the weakness and instability of the Polish government caused social fractures. Moreover, the economic reforms of the government resulted in the polarization, social fractures and divisions among Polish citizens. This break of the middle class created a greater part of Polish society with a low socio-economic status. In my other blog, I will discuss the effect of this socio-economic status on the low political literacy of Polish citizens in greater detail.

I can conclude that the restrictions of the government, the legitimacy crisis of the political party-system and the widespread cynicism, which are all aspects of political instability, had a negative impact on the political literacy and political participation of Polish citizens. Therefore, political instability is another factor (as mentioned in the About Page) of political literacy.

*Featured Image from Politico.eu