Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

POLISH BUSINESS REFERENCES LITERATUR – POLITICS RELATIONS
INTRODUCTION
Twenty years after the fall of communism,
Central-European member states of the
EU are still struggling with the transition to
democratic market capitalism (Hancke, et al.,
2007). It is argued that the Polish economy
has not yet reached the level of institutional
development comparable to developed economies
of Western Europe. According to the
World Bank, in 2009 Poland was still classified
as an ‘emerging market’, although it shifted,
together with Hungary, to the sub-group of
‘advanced emerging markets’ 1 . Economically,
Poland should be perceived, in the light
of the theory of world system, in terms of
‘semi-periphery’ or ‘internal periphery’ of
the European Union ( Jasiecki, 2004). Other
authors differentiate between Visegrad and
Baltic countries, while treating the latter as
‘semi-periphery’ and characterizing the former
by ‘semi-core’ features (Greskovits, 2008).
In this article, I argue that differences in the
development of capitalism and market economy
between the Western and Eastern members of
the European Union (EU) are translated into
divergent patterns of relations between politics
and business at the national level. In turn, these
patterns affect mobilization, resources and
strategies of business representatives at the EU
level. The EU business lobbying environment
is determined by Western models
of consolidated democracy and
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developed market economy. Thus,
the observed institutional differences
between national CEE and European
levels explain, to a significant extent, the
perceived ineffectiveness of Polish national
lobbying in EU institutions. Both scholars
and public affairs practitioners would argue
that the effectiveness of lobbyists in the EU
depends on the position and function lobbying
occupies in their country of origin (Van
Schendelen, 1994, p. 15; Greenwood, 2007,
p. 14; Chorus, 05.03.2007). Consequently,
in order to analyze strengths and weaknesses
of national interest representation, one must
look at the institutional environment at the
national level, which provides opportunities
but also constraints and barriers to active
and effective lobbying strategies. Among the
intervening variables, one does not only find
the critical resource dependencies (Beyres
& Kerremans, 2007), but also institutional,
structural and normative specificities of the
Central-European context of post-communist
(advanced) emerging economy.
The particularities of Central-European, or
in this case Polish, capitalism stem from the
incomplete consolidation of the formal market
institutions, as well as from the informal socialist
heritage, which is present in the spheres of both
economic and political governance. Within the
transformation process, the emerging marketoriented
network of institutions is constrained
by path dependency. Thus transformation is of
incremental and continuous nature, as various
actors attempt to improve their situation by
forcing subsequent institutional changes (North,
1999). Consequently, the socialist burden and
the three simultaneous processes of change
(transformation to capitalism and democracy,
Europeanization 2 and globalization) have
created a hybrid environment of formal and
informal institutions. This hybrid institutional
context plays a crucial role regarding relations
between the state and economic, political and
business elites.