Poland

Natasha Wunsch, Marc S. Jacob, and Laurenz Derksen ask why voters often fail to sanction candidates who violate democratic norms. The authors build on debates about heterogeneous democratic attitudes to show that people’s differing conceptions of what democracy means affect whether they recognize—and therefore punish—anti-democratic behavior at the ballot box.

This paper asks whether physical surveillance dampens or fuels anti-regime resistance. The dominant view argues surveillance suppresses dissent by giving regimes intelligence on networks and by instilling fear. Using newly declassified records from Communist Poland, the analysis shows a more complex picture: areas with secret police officers saw more street protests but fewer acts of sabotage.