Working Class Peripheries or State Bureaucracy Settlements? Case Studies of Social Democratic Parties Electoral Support in Capital Cities of Hungary and Poland

Abstract

The text aims at the electoral strongholds of social democratic parties in the capitals of Poland and Hungary in the 21st century. Despite the similar history and political strategies of the two former communist parties, they were characterized by a different structure of electoral support. In Budapest, the Hungarian Socialist Party achieved its best results in districts traditionally associated with the working class and the social democratic party of the interwar period. In Warsaw, contemporary centre-left had an unhistorical profile, winning votes in districts associated with the post-World War II military and police bureaucracy.