POWERS, Denise V.

Echoes from the past : the relationship between satisfaction with economic reforms and voting behavior in Poland - New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, September 1997

What accounts for satisfaction with reforms in transitional societies? Does economic dissatisfaction translate into a vote for the return of reconstituted communist parties? Many scholars have hypothesized that as people's suffering intensifies, they are more likely to turn against economic and political reforms that enjoyed mass support prior to implementation (Diamond 1992; Haggard and Kaufman 1995; Przeworski 1991, 1993). Although these theories of the dynamic of regime change address macrolevel relationships between economic change and mass support, they contain an implicit micrologic for individuals. Indeed, several studies of individual attitudes have found that the worse one's economic situation, the lower is the level of support for many aspects of reforms (McIntosh and MacIver 1992; Mcintosh et al. 1994; Mishler and Rose 1994, 1996).(1)