Places that matter and places that don’t: territorial revenge and counter-revenge in Poland

Abstract

This article examines the persistence of territorial inequality and the challenges posed by growing geographic political polarisation, using Poland as a compelling case study. In 2015, the anti-elite and Eurosceptic PiS party came to power, holding it for eight years before losing to a broad coalition of liberal, centrist, and left-wing parties. We study the geography of this political shift by analysing parliamentary election results from 2011 to 2023 against the backdrop of growing regional socio-economic divides. Our findings reveal that the support base of the PiS gradually expanded in areas characterised by multidimensional peripherality, aligning with the theory of the ‘revenge of places that do not matter’. Meanwhile, the recent victory of the liberal coalition can be attributed to the political mobilisation of prosperous core areas–a ‘counter-revenge of places that matter’–which has further intensified the geography of political polarisation in Poland.