The influence of European integration on the Polish transformation : a balancing act

This article presents a multiple-aspect analysis of the systemic transformation of Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. The phenomena of political, commercial, and social changes in the countries which threw off the communist system have often been misleadingly explained in terms of a clear-cut scheme of historical processes which took place in well-defined periods, supposedly with defined beginnings and ends. Transformation, as a complicated and overlapping process requires us to study impulses and barriers, making ourselves aware of the fact that we are not only observers but also participants, in order to study the factors characterising the essence of transformation. The author defines the transformation of Central and Eastern Europe as a process of systematic changes consisting in gradual (slower or faster) movement from the omnipotence of the state and the planned economy to a market economy and the democratic rule of law and civil society. Among many factors, the greatest historical impact was caused by the fall of the Soviet Block. The following changes in terms of their effects also embraced the essence of state sovereignty, which followed a path from regaining full subjectivity in international law to the status of shared sovereignty (collective) resulting from the nature of European integration. In the following analysis, the author enumerates, on the one hand, ‘endogenous' factors constitutive to the fate of the transformations in Central and Eastern European countries, such as: geopolitical location, historical legacy, the level of economic development reached before 1989, the scale of reforms after 1989, the level of social acceptance, opposition against reforms and the level of political culture. On the other hand, ‘exogenous' factors, which result from the politics and norms of the European Union, would include: a stable democracy and the rule of law, a market economy, and an acceptance of the political goals of the European Union. The path which Central and Eastern European countries are travelling can be summed up with the motto ‘from transformation to integration'. Based on this analysis and a selection of statistical data which covers the state of the Polish economy and society after 1989, the author deals with selected myths about the transformation of Poland. These include the conviction that the main beneficiaries of the changes were liars and cheats, as well as the myth that high unemployment accompanies privatisation.