PUBLIC AUTHORITIES AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS: EXAMPLES OF ANTI-CRISIS ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN IN 2008 - 2009 (Wladze publiczne wobec kryzysu gospodarczego: przyklady dzialan antykryzysowych podejmowanych w latach 2008 - 2009)

The aim of the present work is the analysis and comparison of the most important foreign experiences in the field of anti-crisis activities undertaken in the years 2008 - 2009 in the USA, Germany, France, Poland and the European Union. Information about anti-crisis policies was collected from press and official publications (source materials) and analysts' commentaries available in specialist and scientific literature. The starting point is a statement that anti-crisis activities should be carried out in a long-term, not short-term perspective. Moreover, the keynote idea of the article is the assumption that every well constructed development policy should connect a strategic component (based on long standing strategy) with a possibility of flexible reactions to new circumstances, including crisis situations. It requires an adequate addition of new operational instruments to the development policy and a connection of long-term activities with the short-term ones. Finally, the author presented the most important conclusions concerning the different approaches of the analyzed public authorities to anti-crisis policy.