The views and opinions expressed here reflect the authors' point of view and not necessarily those of CASE. This report was prepared as part of the Global Development Network project "Un- derstanding Reform". The publication of the report was financed by the GDN. Keywords: Poland, reform, transition. © CASE – Center for Social and Economic Research, Warsaw 2005 Graphic Design: Agnieszka Natalia Bury DTP: CeDeWu Sp. z o.o. ISBN: 83-7178-376-0 Publisher: CASE – Center for Social and Economic Research 12 Sienkiewicza, 00-010 Warsaw, Poland tel.: (48 22) 622 66 27, 828 61 33, fax: (48 22) 828 60 69 e-mail:
[email protected] http://www.case.com.pl/ 2 CASE Reports No. 59 Contents Preface . 6 1. An overview of the Polish reform process, 1989-2001. 7 1.1. The Political Context . 7 1.2. The Reform Process . 10 1.3. Reform stagnation. 11 2. Research questions, methodology, and hypotheses . 14 3. Reforms of the state machinery. 22 3.1 Civil service . 22 3.2. Administration of Justice. 29 4. Stabilization and liberalization reforms . 38 4.1. The actors in the design and implementation of the reform package . 39 4.2. The technical nature of the liberalization and stabilization reform . 44 4.3. Initial results of the Balcerowicz reform package . 46 4.4. Later developments . 48 4.5. Assessment . 55 5. Enterprise reform (privatization and restructuring) . 57 5.1. Privatization . 57 5.2. Enterprise restructuring . 66 5.3. Building corporate governance mechanisms. 70 5.4. Effects of enterprise sector reform . 73 5.5. Assessment . 79 6.