Determinants of Success in Public Opinion in Poland: Factors, Directions and Dynamics of Change

In this paper we present the analysis of changes in perceiving subjective determinants of success in Poland, including implicit attitudes towards the idea of meritocracy. On the basis of factor analysis, we have prepared two scales for the ‘meritocratic’ and ‘family and friends’ dimensions of opinion about path to success. We investigate how support for these scales is differentiated and influenced by sociodemographic characteristics and social class.We accompany in the paper the analysis of ‘meritocratic’ and ‘family and friends’ scales with the analysis of the changing support for individual determinants, such as for example ‘hard work’, ‘good education’ and ‘knowing the right people’. We examine how the opinion of the same group of people on path to success changes over time and to which extend radical changes have occurred in the perception of certain determinants. Our analyses are based on data from the Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN, 1988–2013), where the question as to what conditions success in life was asked in every survey wave. It provides an opportunity to compare attitudes towards success from just before regime transformation and every five years thereafter. We place in the paper a particular emphasis in the paper on previously unanalysed data from the years 2008–2013.