Economics and politics of post-communist transition to market and democracy. The lessons from Polish experience

After the market-oriented reforms executed in Poland under the socialist system in the 1980s and the critical years of the early 1990s, a multilayered programme of dynamic socio-economic development, embedded in the building of social market economy institutions and structural reforms responding to the challenges of globalisation, arose in 1993–94. ‘Strategy for Poland’ was a medium-term programme, although also delineating many tasks for the long-run. The contemporary diagnosis of the conditions of sustainable development and the outlining of its long-term goals was basically correct and much of what a quarter of a century ago was addressed to structural reforms and institutional changes is still valid today. This applies in particular to matters as large as the imperative of creating a social market economy or the competitiveness of enterprises in conditions of wide openness to contacts with the world, through matters as significant as beneficial integration with the European Union or reform of the social security system, to matters as specific as efficient financial supervision or the expansion of an economy based on knowledge. Critical for further sustainable and balanced development is relying economic policies on proper economic theory and to this end, new pragmatism can bring some new thoughts.