Self-management and the Politics of Reform: Poland in the 1980s

Self-management was a central aspect of the reform designed in Poland during 1981. The reform recognized the necessity of (1) economic and political change and (2) governmental and social participation in economic reconstruction. Self-management exemplified these principles as a mechanism linking the state and society within the enterprise. The imposition of martial law, however, reinterpreted the reform blueprint by withdrawing from it political content and socio-political participation. Instead the post1981 normalization imposed a variety of political, legal and institutional restrictions on industrial self-management. The result was an emasculation of the reform process that has contributed to the economic crisis and political stalemate prevailing in Poland during the past decade.