Poland’s Rise of the Right Analyzing the Impact of Globalization on the Rise of Right-Wing Politics in Poland Using Polish News Websites

In 2015, the Law and Justice Party [Prawo I Sprawiedliwość, PiS] won the majority of seats in parliament and took control of Poland. PiS has a populist platform that has led to undemocratic practices, especially in the judicial branch, that are being questioned by the EU. This study evaluates the role that globalization, a concept that has been linked to other European countries’ citizens' appeal to right-wing populist groups, has in Poland’s rise of PiS. Two Polish websites, Przeglad and Wprost were analyzed to observe the change in positive and negative language before and after PiS’s rise to power and to observe how it has impacted party polarization. Articles that had one or more of eight key terms associated with globalization were analyzed for the negativity and positivity. Additionally, when observing sentiment over time, the term “globalization” has converged between the two websites, while “WTO” has remained consistent. Overall, the results showed that language has shifted towards neutrality, with a movement from strong positive or strong negative, to weak positive and weak negative; however, with only a few key terms being statistically significant there is a need for further research into more key terms and additional websites.