Political Conditions and Doctrinal Foundations of the Transformation in Poland in Comparison with Other Post-Communist Countries

Abstract

The article presents a diagnostic assessment of the political and economic
system transformation process in Poland. The author expresses an opinion
that Solidarity as a mass social and political organization played a significant
role only in the destruction of communism but not in the creation of a new
political system. Its main leader, Lech Walesa, did not allow it to do so. And it
was substituted in that role by the conservative – formerly communist – power
after it had eliminated the orthodox communists’ fraction. In co-operation
with the Democratic Union and later the Union of Freedom, and Lech Walesa
himself, it substantially contributed to the creation of a new post-communist
system. In such conditions the economic system could not be formed following
the model of fair capitalism but political capitalism based on the principles
of pseudo-liberal ideology and propaganda and a contemptuous treatment of
the academic science of liberal-market economics. The article also presents
two forecast scenarios of future changes of the political system.