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Public Debt and Its Impact on the Polish Economy and Society1

100%
Rae G.
Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe
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2016
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issue 1
89-112
EN
Purpose: To analyse the issue of public debt in Poland and examine its effect on other areas of socio-economic life as well as government policy. Approach: The question of public debt is placed in its historical context by looking at how it grew during the Communist system and influenced the transition period. The article draws on a range of secondary economic statistics and considers in detail a number of public policy issues, such as the reform of the pension system. Findings: One result of the large debt incurred by the end of the 1970s was that Poland became indebted to creditors in the West. This dependency helped to shape its economic policy at the end of the 1980s. The transition to a market economy placed new burdens on the country’s public services, primarily due to the resulting large deactivation of labour. Furthermore, the creation of a compulsory private pension system at the end of the 1990s diverted significant funds out of the government’s budget and swelled the country’s public debt. Since the outbreak of the economic crisis, Poland has avoided a recession by increasing public investment by utilising available European Union funds. However, due to internal and external limits on the size of its public debt, the government is being pressured to reduce this spending. In order to create more fiscal room, the government has partly dismantled the compulsory private pension system as a short-term solution to the growing debt crisis. Value: In the wake of the global financial crisis and economic turmoil in the European Union, the matter of public debt has taken on increased importance. This paper considers this question from a long-term perspective in a country that has been relatively successful during the international economic downturn. By examining public debt from this broad perspective, we can better understand the economic situation in Poland and the European Union, whilst also shedding light on some of the surrounding academic perspectives and public policy debates.
2
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Public Capital and the Post-Communist Welfare State: The Case of Poland

100%
Rae G.
Polish Sociological Review
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2016
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vol. 194
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issue 2
155-170
EN
This paper provides an overview of some of the main theories of the welfare state. It builds upon Polanyi’s theory of the double-movement and relates this to Bourdieu’s concept of multiple capitals. It argues that the welfare state can be understood as a form of public capital, both in an economic and sociological sense. The welfare state emerges and is maintained due to a social countermovement that at least partly removes areas of socio-economic life out of commodity relations. In turn this creates public capital, which is both economic and social. In the post-Communist countries most of this public capital was created during a period when almost the whole of economic and social life was controlled by the state. Once the Communist system collapsed, so the accompanying policy of full-employment and system of social welfare organised through state enterprises disappeared. This was met with a large rise in unemployment and labour deactivation, meaning that many social benefits were created during the initial years of the transition. Also, the post-Communist systems inherited large amounts of public capital in the form of public services such as health and education. Through the example of Poland this paper analyses how this public capital was initially maintained and even developed during the early transition period, but then how a process of commodifying it was later begun.
3
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Divergence Not Convergence. The Strengthening of the post-Communist Welfare State Model in Central and Eastern Europe After European Union Expansion

63%
Piotrowska K., Rae G.
Polish Sociological Review
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2018
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vol. 203
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issue 3
303-320
EN
This paper analyses the welfare states in the post-Communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe,which are members of the European Union. It applies the welfare regime typology methodology, partly developed by Esping-Andersen, as a framework for this research. The paper examines the two main predictions that emerged from the literature on the future of the welfare states in Central and Eastern Europe. Firstly, was the thesis that these welfare states would not fit easily into any of the existent models in Western Europe. Secondly, that these welfare states would gradually converge with one or more of the welfare regimes existent in the West. We have used hierarchical cluster analysis to check the extent of this welfare convergence/divergence over the first ten year period after the eastern expansion of the European Union (2004 and 2014). We discovered that in 2004 the post-communist countries were divided between two clusters, although by 2014 all of the post-Communist countries (apart from Slovenia) had grouped together in one separate cluster. Therefore a process of divergence from the western European welfare models and a convergence between the post-Communist welfare states had actually occurred.
4
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Mixed opinions: public attitudes towards the welfare state in Poland

63%
Rae G., Piotrowska K.
Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny
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2022
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vol. 84
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issue 4
137-161
PL
Niniejszy artykuł analizuje opinię publiczną w Polsce w odniesieniu do polityki i struktur państwa opiekuńczego. Rozpoczynamy od przedstawienia głównych badań nad modelami państwa opiekuńczego, w szczególności opierając się na typologii państwa opiekuńczego Espinga-Andersena. Następnie przedstawiamy istniejące sprzeczne badania dotyczące tego, czy w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej (EŚW), w tym w Polsce, można zidentyfikować odrębny model państwa opiekuńczego. Wykorzystujemy to jako kontekst analizy opinii Polaków na temat państwa opiekuńczego. Nasze badania wykorzystują oryginalne dane ilościowe uzyskane z badania przeprowadzonego na reprezentatywnej próbie w Polsce. W polskim społeczeństwie istnieje szczególnie silne poparcie dla aspektów socjaldemokratycznego modelu państwa opiekuńczego. Co więcej, duża część polskiego społeczeństwa nadal popiera niektóre struktury opiekuńcze istniejące w czasach komu nizmu. Jednocześnie w najbardziej uprzywilejowanych grupach społecznych istnieje znaczne poparcie dla liberalnego modelu państwa opiekuńczego. Z analizy wynika zatem, że opinie polskiego społeczeństwa są mieszane, co do pewnego stopnia odzwierciedla hybrydowy charakter państwa opiekuńczego.
EN
This paper examines public opinion in Poland towards welfare policies and structures. We start by outlining the main research into welfare state models, in particular drawing on the welfare state typologies of Esping-Andersen. We then outline the existing contradictory research that exists on whether a distinct welfare state model is identifiable in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), including Poland. We use this as a context to analyse the opinions of Poles towards the welfare state. Our research uses original quantitative data garnered from a survey carried out on a representative sample in Poland. There is particular strong support for aspects of the social democratic welfare state model within Polish society. Furthermore, large sections of Polish society remain supportive of some of the welfare structures that were existent during Communism. Concurrently, there is significant support for a liberal welfare state model within the most privileged sections of society. The analysis therefore finds that the opinions of Polish society are mixed, which to some degree reflects the hybrid nature of its welfare state.
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