ORDOLIBERALISM AND THE SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND

This paper aims at providing an answer to the question whether the Polish model of economy as construed in article 20 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland is equivalent to the conception of social market economy created and implemented by ordoliberals in the Federal Republic of Germany after the World War II. For that purpose the author employed the dogmatic method. As the normative basis for this paper served the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, and the relevant body literature on constitutional law as well as theory of and history of economics. The author notes an unquestionable convergence of axiology and solutions concerning the role of the state in the economy, its functions and purposes, that can be found in the views expressed by ordoliberals on the one hand, and normative regulations of the economic order of the Republic of Poland after 1989 provided in the Constitution on the other. Notwithstanding the similarities, the author stresses the distinguished character of the Polish economic transformation, which supports private property, facilitates the development of social dialogue and contributes towards common good. The paper concludes that the economic model expressed explicit in article 20 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland is an original development of the ordoliberal doctrine, one that takes into account the specific conditions of the country's situation.