Kulturowe aspekty transformacji ekonomicznej. Kochanowicz J, Mandes S, Marody M, editors. Warszawa: Instytut Spraw Publicznych; 2007.
Authors' Reply. Polish Sociological Review. 2003;144(4):383-5. Abstract
Authors' Reply
A reply to comments on the article, "Towards Understanding the Polish Economic Culture" (2003), acknowledges the elusiveness of the concept of economic culture & contends that most of the criticisms were based on the belief that the aims of the article were more ambitious than they actually were. The objective was to simply find a way to better understand what happens when a nation with a long legacy of economic backwardness & a nonmarket economy enters into the postindustrial world of late capitalism. Since Poland's development record is below expectations & many business/political patterns were imported, consideration was given to possible clashes between reforms & local patterns of behavior. There was no attempt to analyze the reforms. It is suggested that the rise of small businesses indicates a fight for survival rather than an affirmation of capitalism. Differences between a market economy & capitalism are pointed & the question of whether the positive legacy of cultural affinity to the West is strong enough to counterbalance the "negative idea of backwardness & peripheral condition" is discussed. 3 References. J. Lindroth
Towards Understanding the Polish Economic Culture. Polish Sociological Review. 2003;144(4):343-68. Abstract
Towards Understanding the Polish Economic Culture
This paper addresses the question of a possible incompatibility between the economic culture of the Polish society & new institutions introduced during the processes of transformation to a market economy & accession to the European Union. Economic culture is understood in the paper in terms of value systems, cognitive schemes, & patterns of behavior. Two dimensions are proposed for the analysis of economic culture: governance & entrepreneurship. Governance is analyzed in terms of the dominant type of social ties, attitudes toward formal institutions, criteria for "social payments," & the dominant type of interaction. Entrepreneurship, in turn, is understood in terms of the prevailing logic (nature) of entrepreneurship, time orientation, attitudes toward money, & attitudes toward wealth. The last part of the paper sketches a tentative, working description of Polish economic culture. 64 References. Adapted from the source document.