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