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CHAPTER 3

ADAPTIVE PROCESSES

AND CRISIS OF LEGITIMACY 77

3.1. BEYOND LEGITIMACY: ADAPTIVE PROCESSES DURING THE DECLINE OF COMMUNISM 77

3.1.1. Active Adaptation 77

3.1.2. Legitimation and Adaptation: Limitations and Chances of the Concept 85

3.1.3. Active Adaptation: An Attempt to Specify the Phenomenon 89

3.1.4. The "Fourfold System" as a Form of Active Adaptation 100

3.1.5. Concluding Remarks 114

3.2. BREAKHTROUGH AND THE POST-COMMUNIST LEGITIMACY CRISIS 115

3.2.1. The Character of the Transitional Period 115

3.2.2. Why Did the Old Order Collapse? 120

3.2.3. Legjtimation Problems in the Transformations Phase 125

3.2.4. Problems of the Identity of the New Order 138

CHAPTER 4

DYNAMICS OF POST-COMMUNISM: FROM PASSIVE

POLITIZATION TO ACTIVE DEPOLITIZATION? 143

4.1. Introduction: The Self-destruction of Communism 143

4.2. Vanishing Legacy of Communism and Solidarity: From Passive Politization to Active Depolitization of Society 146

4.3. The Dynamics of Social Structures 152

4.4. From a System without a State to a State without a System? 155

4.5. Concluding Remarks 162

REFERENCES 164

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INTRODUCTION

In this book I present an interpretation of the changes which have been taking place in Poland since 1989. It is not, however, the history of the downfall of communism and the structure of this work has not been organized on a chronological basis. The interpretation of changes being proposed here fits into the mainstream of institutional sociology. When I speak about changes, I refer mostly to the changes in the economy, although political changes are also present in my analysis.

In this work I look at three fundamental sources of change. I define these as changes within the system, changes outside the system, and changes to the system. Changes within the system are the reforms, changes outside the system are the diverse forms of adaptation mechanisms, consisting of "transgressing" the framework of formal rules, while the change to the system is the radical transformation initiated by the downfall of communism in 1989-90.

We are dealing in Poland with the simultaneous existence of those three sources of change. Moreover, these sources influence one another. We can say that the reforms which never were successful and consistent under communism influenced, however, the shape of the system. Their influence was visible also in the fact that the unsuccessful attempts at reforms accelerated the erosion of the system. Changes "outside the system" contributed to that erosion, while they also exerted an influence on the changes within the system. In this work I indicate how certain new mechanisms, initially located in the informal sphere, penetrated into the official programs of reforms. Finally, both the changes within the system and the changes outside the system have contributed in a certain way to the change of the system, that is to its radical transformation.

Since the beginning of the transformation remaining sources of dynamics have not, however, disappeared. Within the radical transformation of the economy we still hear echoes of earlier reforms.


Creative Commons License Prawa do treści książki "Reforms, Adaptation and Breakthrough" posiada Andrzej Rychard. Książka jest dostępna na licencji Uznanie autorstwa - Użycie niekomercyjne - Na tych samych warunkach 3.0 Polska.

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