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

AGNIESZKA REFERENCES LITERATUR K. CIANCIARA
attached to state control, than freedom of
economic activity. Polish society represents
more materialist attitudes (preponderance of
survival values), which results from permanent
deprivation typical for socialist economy. Thus,
despite the remarkable economic development
and growth in welfare over the last 20 years,
Central-European societies are still classified
as materialist. Relative scarcity of postmaterialist
values is also visible among Polish
entrepreneurs, in particular in their attitudes
towards CSR - corporate social responsibility
(Lewicka-Strzałecka, 2006).
Contrary to what is often upheld by Western
scholars, basing their arguments on the
experience of Solidarity movement, Poland is
characterized by weak civil society organization,
together with weak institutionalization of interest
representation. In fact, Polish society has hardly
any traditions of constructive civil involvement,
as it was historically focused on protest and
opposition. Social dialogue in the form of
tripartite councils is formally well established,
but produces questionable results and lacks
autonomy, as it is dominated by the government
(Gardawski et al., 2008). Other forms of
involvement of business interest representation
practiced in the modern governance systems, be
it in the form of consultations in the framework
of impact assessment procedures, or in the form
of public hearings, are frequently of facade
nature. They do not contribute to mobilization
and consolidation of interest groups. Finally,
and contrary to developments at the EU
level, lobbying activities are not legitimized
in Poland and are not considered part and
parcel of the democratic decision-making by
both the public opinion and political elite
(Burson-Marsteller, 2009).
BUSINESS-POLITICS RELATIONS IN POLAND:
FROM TRANSFORMATION TO CONSOLIDATION
PHASE?
The above mentioned characteristics of the
institutional environment of Polish capitalism
structure business-politics relations to a
significant extent. Inefficient governance
structures in the largest (usually state-owned)
companies, a low level of political culture of
decision-makers conducive to high levels of
corruption, a relatively unfavourable business
environment due to substantial administrative
burden and very weak legitimization of
lobbying as an element of democratic
decision-making – all these factors hamper
the development of interest representation
procedures compatible with those developed
at the EU level.
At the same time, patterns of Polish capitalism
are obviously subejct to processes of change
over time. Notably, the pattern of change
from transformation phase to consolidation of
market economy and democratic governance is
assumed, in particular due to Europeanization
process ( Jasiecki, 2008). It is worth underlining
the fact that different companies and sectors
belong to different phases of development
(for instance, compare energy and ICT
sectors). The passage from transformation
to consolidation phase is also linked to the
growing level of autonomy of business
elites from political elites, which
heavily affects their mutual relations. Seite Page page 51
It is expected that with the progress
of consolidation phase, professional
lobbying would gradually weaken and replace
clientelistic and oligarchic ties. Nevertheless,
as experience of Western democracies and