Editors:Borbála Göncz (CUB), Ágnes Győri (HUN-REN IS), Márta Kiss (HUN-REN GKAC) Attila Gulyás (HUN-REN CSS), László Lőrincz (CUB), Irmina Matonyte (MAL, Vilnius), Simon Milton (CUB), Jelena Pesic (Univ. of Beograd), Andrew Ryder (CUB)
Editor in Chief:Márton Medgyesi (CUB)
Editorial Board
Tamás Bartus (CUB), Éva Fodor (CEU), György Lengyel (CUB), László Letenyei (CUB), Beáta Nagy (CUB), Zoltán Szántó (CUB), Lilla Vicsek (CUB)
Advisory Board
Attila Bartha (CUB), Heinrich Best (Univ. of Jena), József Böröcz (Rutgers Univ.), Bruno Dallago (Univ. of Trento), Menno Fenger (Erasmus University, Rotterdam), Anuska Ferligoj (Univ. of Ljubljana), Max Haller (Univ. of Graz), John Higley (Univ. of Texas, Austin), Ildikó Husz (HUN-REN GKAC), Michal Illner (Inst. of Sociology, CAS, Prague), Csaba Jelinek (CEU), Zúza Kusa (Inst. of Sociology, SAS, Bratislava), Olga Kutsenko (Univ. of Kiev), Mihály Laki (HUN-REN IS), David Lane (Univ. of Cambridge), Mladen Lazic (Univ. of Beograd), József Péter Martin (TI, Budapest), Attila Melegh (CUB), Maria Nawojczyk (Univ. AGH, Cracow), Vadim Radaev (High School of Economics, Moscow), Jose Real-Dato (Univ. Almeira), Kinga Szabó-Tóth (Univ. Miskolc), Judit Takács (HUN-REN IS), Károly Takács (Linköping Univ.), István György Tóth (Tárki, Budapest), Camelia Florela Voinea (Univ. of Bucharest)
The Nature of Capitalism in Poland. Controversy over the Economy since the end of 2015: The Prospects of Business Elite and Employer Associations
Krzysztof Jasiecki
Abstract
The article characterizes the main directions of changes in economic policy and the institutional transformation introduced by the Law and Justice party government in Poland since the end of 2015. This issue is analyzed in the perspective of the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) approach applied to post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), with particular regard to industrial relations (IR) and the controversy which the new government's policy is raising among the Polish business elite and leaders of the largest national employers' associations. The secondary role of such associations in post-communist transformation in CEE and efforts to systemic change the direction of reforms undertaken in Poland since the early 1990s has been presented. New relationships between government and business have been explored, as well as attempts to re-shape the system of economic representation, including employers' associations. The Polish example confirms the weakness of entrepreneurs and new middle classes in CEE societies. This weakness is one of the factors favoring neo-etatist, populist and authoritarian tendencies, not only in Hungary and Poland.
Keywords
Varieties of Capitalism in CEE, post-communist transition, Poland under PiS government, Polish economic elite and employers’ associations