More than six years have now passed since the end of communist rule in East-Central Europe, but we still know very little about what is perhaps the transition's most fundamental aspect: the development of party preferences and patterns in voting behavior. Seizing on the rare opportunity for observing a multi-party system taking root in society, this book considers the development of competitive party politics in Poland during the early stages of the transition to parliamentary democracy. The author explores how individuals acquire partisan preferences during such an evolution and weighs the relative impact of social cleavages, political culture and attitudes, and political actors and institutions on party system formation.