The article discusses the issue of civic qualities of political culture on the territories of the former Galicia in the light class-oriented theories of origins of democratic political cultures. The author expresses a view that Galicia was a stronghold of class-oriented political movement (populist and social democratic ones) at the time of birth modern mass democracy in the Polish territories during the partitions and in the subsequent interwar period. Galicia also constituted a Polish stronghold of resistance against 20th century authoritarian (Sanacja) and totalitarian (Stalinism) regimes. After 1989 and during the 1990s the region enjoyed the highest level of specifically civic forms of electoral participation among all historical regions of Poland. The paradox of Galicia is a “reversal” of the political profile of the region: from a stronghold of anti-clerical populism and social democracy, it became a region of the strongest support for clerical and nationalistic parties in the III Polish Republic after 1989. The “reversal” is the result of communist repression and the adoption of the most anti-communist ideologies by the population of Galicia. However, the democratic character of the political culture of the region – the ethos of active participation in political life – has been preserved.