How communism could have been saved: Formal analysis of electoral bargaining in Poland in 1989

During the 1989 Roundtable Talks Solidarity and PUWP (the communist party) were bargaining over the electoral law for the 1989 parliamentary elections in Poland - the first semi-free elections held in the Soviet Bloc. I show that the PUWP consent to the elections was founded on an overly optimistic estimate of its popular support. A surprising Solidarity's victory led to t he subsequent collapse of the communist regime in Poland and initiated the fall of communism in other countries. An alternative electoral law, a Singl e Transferable Vote, would have been mutually acceptable to both parties wh ile producing an outcome that would have been critically better for the com munists.