Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The 2001 Polish National Election Study (PNES), with 2000 respondents, is part of a long running series. It is funded primarily by the Polish National Science Foundation (KBN) and is directed by Radoslaw Markowski of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The comprehensive questionnaire for this survey comprised questions on a range of themes specifically relevant to Polish public opinion and voting patterns, but also included a strong comparative element of wider interest. This ESRC project allowed a module of questions from the School of Slavonic, Central and East European Studies, Glasgow University (SSCEES) to be added to the PNES, focusing especially on the SSCEES research themes of integration, openness and nationalism, bureaucratic encounters and corruption, and political trust. The research proposal included four main aims and objectives: to collect and make available timely data on public opinion in Poland at the time of a critical election, especially data on the ‘future oriented’ issues of integration, openness and nationalism, bureaucratic encounters and corruption and political trust; to extend the range of previous (ESRC-funded) Glasgow University comparative studies of these issues from other post-communist electorates to include Poland; to develop a deeper understanding of these issues, their inter-relationships and in particular their connection with the more immediate and concrete issues surrounding Poland’s European Union (EU) accession; to consider the implications of the Polish findings for other states in central and eastern Europe, especially in regard to further European integration. All of the above aims and objectives were met. A wide range of EU accession-oriented questions were inserted into the 2001 PNES survey. These allowed the researchers to investigate Polish voters’ enthusiasm (or the lack of it) for accession in much greater detail than Eurobarometer polls...