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Introduction
noPolishstate,andtheperiodbetween1950and1989wasmarkedbyaso-
cialisteconomy.Suchastateofaffairswascausedbyboth“badgeography”
andthepost-Yaltapolitical“order”.Bothperiodshavealsogeneratedmany
heateddiscussionsonissuesrelatedtotheeconomicsystemandthestate’s
economicpolicy.
Despitemanysimilarities,andalsosomeresemblancetootherCentral
Europeancountries,thesetwoperiodsweremarkedbysomesignificant
differences.First,duringtheinterwarperiodthegreatestchallengethat
thenewlyindependentPolishstatefacedwashowtomergetogetherthree
separateunitswhich,sincethelate18thcentury,hadbelongedtothree
greatpowers:Russia(theRussianPartition),Prussia(thePrussianParti-
tion),andtheHabsburgEmpire(theAustrianPartition).Notsurprisingly,
intheaftermathoftheFirstWorldWar,allorganisationalandlegalactivities
ofPolishauthoritiesbecamefocusedonbringingthesethreepartstogether
inregainingindependence.However,duringtheseconddecadeofthispe-
riodinthe1930s,subsequentPolishgovernmentsfacedwithexternalmili-
tarythreatsshiftedtheirprioritiestowardsstrengtheningthestate’smilitary
potential.Thisshiftinpriorities,nonetheless,didnotmeangivingupon
afreemarketeconomy.
Second,unliketheinterwarperiod,theperiodmarkingthetransitiontowards
amarketeconomywhichstartedinthelastdecadeofthe20thcentury,took
placeinaverydifferentcontext.Polandinthe1990swasastatewithanal-
readyestablishedgeographicalterritoryandcharacterisedbythedominating
(obsoleteanddeteriorating)roleofthestateandstateproperty.
Significantly,inbothoftheanalysedperiods(1918-1939and1989-2009),
theprocessofchange,atleastdoctrinally,wasinitiatedbasedontheassump-
tionsofeconomicliberalismandabeliefinthefreedomofeconomicactivi-
ties(freemarket).Additionally,althoughfordifferentreasons,bothofthese
periodscanbecharacterisedbyanincreasinginvolvementofthestateinthe
economy,eitherintheformofinterventionisminthecaseoftheformer
orbymeansofasolidarity-basedstatepolicy(withsomeelementsofstate
interventionism)inthecaseofthelatter.Thisstatementisclearlyagener-
alisation,unavoidablyfraught,butjustifiedtakingintoaccounttheconse-
quencesatthemacroscale:political,socialaswellaseconomic.
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