This book examines change in post-1989 Poland by linking it analytically to the continuity of Poland's past. It argues that the first reality of objective-institutional change is underpinned by the continuity of second realities. Based on an interdisciplinary analysis of the Polish case, this study proposes a new conceptual framework for the study of transitional societies and revises standard assumptions in transitology and democratization studies.

What makes countries rich? What makes countries poor? Europe's Growth Champion: Insights from the Economic Rise of Poland seeks to answer these questions, and many more, through a study of one of the biggest, and least heard about, economic success stories. Over the last twenty-five years Poland has transitioned from a perennially backward, poor, and peripheral country to unexpectedly join the ranks of the world's high income countries. Europe's Growth Champion is about the lessons learned from Poland's remarkable experience, the conditions that keep countries poor, and the challenges that countries need to face in order to grow. It defines a new growth model that Poland and its Eastern European peers need to adopt to grow and catch up with their Western counterparts. Poland's economic rise emphasizes the importance of the fundamental sources of growth- institutions, culture, ideas, and leaders- in economic development. It demonstrates that a shift from an extractive society, where the few rule for the benefit of the few, to an inclusive society, where many rule for the benefit of many, can be the key to economic success. *IEurope's Growth Champion asserts that a newly emerged inclusive society will support further convergence of Poland and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe with the West, and help to sustain the region's Golden Age. It also acknowledges the future challenges that Poland faces, and that moving to the core of the European economy will require further reforms and changes in Poland's developmental character.

In the 1980s and 90s, renowned Polish economist Tadeusz Kowalik played a leading role in the Solidarity movement, struggling alongside workers for an alternative to "really-existing socialism" that was cooperative and controlled by the workers themselves. In the ensuing two decades, "really-existing" socialism has collapsed, capitalism has been restored, and Poland is now among the most unequal countries in the world. Kowalik asks, how could this happen in a country that once had the largest and most militant labor movement in Europe? This book takes readers inside the debates within Solidar

"With the inclusion of new, updated material, Transition to Democracy in Poland is a timely, authoritative collection that analyzes Poland's experiment in democratization, from the points of view both of longtime observers of the country and of those who are actually carrying out this extraordinary task. The volume explores Polish parry alignments, mobilization, elections, leaders, labor unions, and the Church. It discusses the range of issues encountered by those attempting to move Poland from a command to a free enterprise economy and the impact these issues will have upon international trade, future membership of the European Community, and security relations. This is an essential book for those who wish to understand Poland's pioneering effort to transform the whole nature of its political and economic framework."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

First published in 1999, this volume features articles from specialists in finance on the economic transformation of Poland from a planned approach to a market-based system after the advent of Post-Communist Europe. Despite apparent exemplary progress in the Polish experience, the transitional process has revealed numerous deep, divisive and complex problems. These include rising disparity of incomes, growing unemployment and disillusionment with the early reform process. This book takes the opportunity of being ten years on from the point of transition to reflect upon its effects. It offers a unique dual approach: first a selection of articles on the transition, followed by a case study.

In the time span of a two-term US presidency, Poland went from an authoritarian one-party state with a faltering centrally planned economy to become a relatively stable multiparty democracy and a market economy with one of the highest GDP growth rates in Europe. A central feature of these economic and political reforms is a high rate of entry of new, domestically owned firms. This book uses detailed economic and political data to examine how these new firms contributed to the Polish transition. The authors test propositions about why some regions have more new firms than others and how the success of these new firms contributed to political constituencies that supported economically liberal parties. The book concludes by contrasting the Polish with the experiences of other transitional countries.