Paul G. Lewis and Radzislawa Gortat, "Models of Party Development and Questions of State Dependence in Poland," Party Politics , 1 (October, 1995), 599-608.

First Paragraph:
The outcome of the 1993 election was the occasion for a reappraisal of the prospects for party development in Poland. This time a minimum 5 percent threshold was imposed with the intention of avoiding the excessive representation of parties and degree of parliamentary fragmentation seen after the 1991 election. Only six national political groupings received parliamentary representation, and all of the conventional political right was excluded.

Figures and Tables:
Table 1: Reported party membership, 1991-5.
Table 2: Expenditure during 1993 election (million zloty).

Last Paragraph:
In this sense, the current role of the Polish state in supporting the major parliamentary parties means that the doubts that have been expressed about the future of the mass party are of less practical importance - even for the only party that can lay claim to a mass membership. Nevertheless, such financial support remains dependent on electoral success, and a high level of membership and extensive organizational structure may well be a condition for effective action in this respect. The experience of the fragmented, weakly organized parties on the Polish right certainly warns against neglecting the role of more traditional sources of party strength.