ABSTRACT
In June, 1989, the Polish electorate astonished national and international observers alike by voting Solidarity-supported candidates into all but one of the contested seats in Parliamentary elections. Soon after the elections, President General V. Jaruzelski, frustrated by the communists' inability to form a government, agreed to allow Solidarity the chance to form a government. The defection of the communists' traditional allies in Parliament to Solidarity at this time allowed for the formation of the first non-communist government in post-World War II Polish history and the beginning of the transition to polyarchic forms of government and market economies throughout most of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
