The Political Economy of Poland's Transition: New Firms and Reform Governments

Extract

The Political Economy of Poland's Transition: New Firms and Reform Governments. By John E. Jackson, Jacek Klich, and Krystyna Poznanska. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 296p. $80.00.

How does a country overcome the challenges of the “dual transition,” or the movement from a planned to a market-based economy, while also building a democratic political structure? That is the central question addressed by this book. The authors challenge the earlier scholarship that doubted the likely success of simultaneous marketization and democratization. Since economic reforms impose high costs on existing politically powerful sectors (such as state-owned firms and agriculture), the argument went, groups associated with these sectors will oppose reforms, making transition difficult. Ironically, the more open the political system, the more it is open to the demands of sectors that lose out because of economic reform, thus threatening democracy.