Guest editorial

Citation

Grygieńć, J. (2015), "Guest editorial", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 42 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-03-2015-0067

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: International Journal of Social Economics, Volume 42, Issue 9.

Special issue on (Un)accomplished transformations. Freedom, democracy and social economics in Poland

Over a quarter of a century since the beginning of Poland's political and economic transition to liberal democracy the assessment of this process still raises controversy. Among its most debated aspects are changes that occurred in the field of economy and politics. Its social and cultural consequences are rarely disputed. Participants in public debates on the issue often forget that Poland's transformation was a multifaceted, complex and nuanced phenomenon. In this context one might even wonder whether it is justified to call the Polish road to democracy (in general) a "transformation". Although this term seems appropriate for the groundbreaking changes that took place in politics (the Polish Round Table Agreement and the peaceful handing over of political power by the communists) and social life, the economy underwent even more revolutionary changes. The abrupt transition from a socialist planned economy to one of most liberal forms of capitalism was without precedent in Europe.

Although hardly anybody would question the Polish authorities' choice at the time of a pro-western political course, many intellectuals point to the devastating impact of this "shock therapy" (drastic neo-liberal revision of economic policy) on economic and social conditions in Poland. They deplore the Polish post-Solidarity elite's dominant TINA (There Is No Alternative) attitude towards radical liberal reforms and their blind faith that the self-regulatory potential of the free market economy would prevent long-term unemployment and other socio-economic perturbations. Authors like Tadeusz Kowalik, Jacek Tittenbrun and Kazimierz Poznański list the mistakes of Polish economic policy which they consider to be due to policy-makers' partiality to classical liberalism. Although Poland may be fairly considered one of Eastern Europe's greatest beneficiaries of liberal reforms, the above-mentioned authors point to the wasted potential of Polish economy: the chaotic and non-transparent character of privatization, the Polish state's resignation from any kind of control over economic changes, lack of systemic support, during the initial, most severe phases of the transformation, to citizens most affected by its negative impact or long-standing resignation from instituting any kind of employment policy. Tadeusz Syryjczyk's (minister in the governments of Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Jerzy Buzek) famous statement that "the best economic policy is lack of economic policy" was symptomatic of this attitude.

Critics of the transformation come both from the left and right of the Polish political spectrum. Leftists usually point to high income inequalities (illustrated by a 0.338 Gini ratio, according to Polish Central Statistical Office data) as an unacceptable consequence of the transformation. The architects of Poland's transformation disregarded the importance of socio-economic cohesion as a precondition of sustainable social welfare and economic growth. Representatives of the Polish Right focus on the role played by the former communist elite in the creation of the new political and economic order. They cite analyses by scholars such as Andrzej Zybertowicz (who conducts research on the relations between today's Polish business elites and former communist secret service officers) to argue the crucial role of communist secret services in the re-privatization process.

The authors of the essays presented in this volume address the issue of Polish political and economic transformation from a variety of perspectives. They present the impact that Poland's transition to liberal democracy had on politics, economy and social life.

Wodzimierz Anio presents three narratives that have dominated the Polish political scene since the 1990s, favouring three different strategies of socio-economic transformation: neoliberal, conservative and socialist-democratic. Each of them is founded on a set of unique methodological and normative assumptions about relations between individual and community, and state and economy. Aniol observes the predominance of the neoliberal narrative in debates on Polish economic reforms.

Ewa Bińczyk agrees with the thesis about the predominance of the neoliberal paradigm in the Polish public sphere. In her article, she examines the main lines of resistance to this paradigm. She considers the main Polish critics of neoliberalism to be Andrzej Szahaj in the field of socio-political philosophy, Tadeusz Kowalik in the domain of economy, and a group of intellectuals contributing to Nowy Obywatel magazine in the sphere of social economy. Bińczyk analyses their arguments in the context of various Polish neoliberal economic practices.

Andrzej Szahaj defines the form of liberalism introduced in Poland in the wake of transformation. In his opinion, the unfortunate coincidence of the global and ideological domination of the neoliberal paradigm with the transformation undergone at the time by capitalism itself (the emergence of cognitive capitalism) resulted in the application of the most radical form of liberal governance in Poland's economy. In Szahaj's opinion, the social costs of transformation could have been minimized if only Polish reformers had appreciated the alternatives to a neoliberal economy available at the time.

Janusz Grygieńć explores the socio-economic aspects of Poland's transformation. He gives an account of the institutional and cultural obstacles to the development of a Polish system of social economy, proposing two theses: firstly, that when it comes to social economy the Polish legal system is ahead of social consciousness and consequently does not contribute significantly to an increase in the number of socio-economic enterprises; and secondly that institutional barriers to socio-economic development derive from cultural barriers.

Marek Rymsza explores the role of Active Social Policy in forging social bonds in Poland. He focuses on social enterprises, trying to establish their most appropriate form that would combine the realization of social aims (activation and re-integration of socially excluded persons) with economic effectiveness, the "vertical inclusion of persons suffering from social exclusion with [the] strengthening [of] horizontal networks".

Adam J. Chmielewski focuses on the problem of unequal access to cultural heritage. He uses Martha Nussbaum's capability approach and the Human Development Index as methodological tools to examine the experiments conducted in Bilbao (Spain) and Santa Fe (New Mexico, USA) aimed at stimulating urban growth and regeneration via the employment of arts. Chmielewski proposes a set of policy recommendations aimed at the revitalization of contemporary cities.

Finally, Adam F. Kola and Anna Maria Kola explore the consequences of transforming the Polish educational system in accordance with neoliberal logic. They present parallel models of education (marginalized by the prevailing neoliberal status quo) realized in Poland and seek recommendations for policymakers aiming to transform the Polish educational system.

The essays collected here feature a wide range of possible approaches to socio-economic aspects of Poland's transformation. Most of them deal with the clash of two socio-economic perspectives: neoliberal – market-oriented and minimalist in terms of state interventionism; and socialist-liberal – attached to values alternative to short-term economic success. Understanding the nature and significance of this opposition to Polish post-Communist history is necessary not only for an understanding of Poland's transformation, but also of contemporary Polish politics.

Dr Janusz Grygień

Department of Humanities, Institute of Philosophy, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toru, Poland

About the Guest Editor

Dr Janusz Grygieńć, PhD, is a Graduate in Philosophy and Political Sciences from Nicolaus Copernicus University. He has published books General Will in Political Philosophy (Imprint Academic, Exeter 2013) and Thomas Hill Green. Od epistemologii do filozofii politycznej (Thomas Hill Green. From Epistemology to Political Philosophy, ECE, Toruń 2009). Author of many peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, co-translator (into Polish) of Richard Rorty's Philosophy and Social Hope, and Henry Tam's Communitarianism. A New Agenda for Politics and Citizenship. His research interests include political philosophy and theory (with special interest in Democratic Theory), and history of political thought (especially Jean Jacques Rousseau, British Idealism and New Liberalism). He co-edits Political Dialogues. Journal of Political Theory.