The Costs of “Shock Therapy”: Economic Transition in Poland

At the beginning of 1990, the ideology of laissez-faire had made a triumphal return to the Polish political scene, and nothing appeared likely to disturb the self-assurance of the neoliberals. By now, however, there are increasing signs of disarray, crisis, and pessimism among those recently triumphal. In many of his recent speeches in the West, President Lech Walesa has warned that Poland’s program of economic reform may collapse. The possibility of such a collapse has also been referred to by the new head of Solidarity, Marian Krzaklewski. In an interview under the title “The Vicious Circle of Post-Communism,” a well-known sociologist, Edmund Mokrzycki, made the following comments on the pride and joy of the neoliberals, the program of Finance Minister Balcerowicz:

Is the only way out of this vicious circle via a dramatic revolution in other words, a break- down of the entire system—or will we manage to set in motion a self-generating development? Balcer...