Politicians in times of transformation: "Transformational correctness" or genuine differences in perception?

The paper presents selected results of the 1996 study of top Polish politic ians - members of the 1993-97 Parliament and leaders of those important pol itical parties which failed to get into this Parliament. Presented results pertain to five aspects of politicians' attitudes: (I) opinions on qualitie s of persons who should be vs. actually are involved in politics, (2) norma tively accepted definitions of politics, (3) visions of the "good state", ( 4) visions of democracy, and (5) opinions on what defines political views a s being either on the "left" or on the "right." As a result there is a stro ng attitudinal similarity among politicians of differing political parties and of divergent political orientations. This finding is interpreted as ref lection of a fundamental "track similarity" in the way in which Polish poli ticians perceive the most important tasks confronting the whole political c lass in times of systemic transformation. "Transformational correctness" - the belief that in such times politicians should have (or at least should d isplay) certain views - might be a strong force behind this similarity.