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

POLISH BUSINESS REFERENCES LITERATUR – POLITICS RELATIONS
the dossier in question notwithstanding their
nationality.
Moreover, the repartition of Polish deputies
among the European Parliament committees
is not at all functional from the point of view
of business interest representation. Poland is
overrepresented in the foreign affairs committee,
whereas membership in committees
dealing with single market or environmental
issues is more than scarce (the tendency has
been similar after the 2009 EP elections). Thus
the potential for opinion shaping in economic
matters is considerably limited.
At the same time, the specificities of Polish
capitalism discussed above result in a relatively
weak level of internationalization of Polish
business and an absence of large national corporations
capable of attracting and mobilizing
smaller players into national and European
business associations. Just as in the third sector,
business organizations are seriously underdeveloped
in terms of membership and financing
in comparison with the situation in Western
member states. Meanwhile, company size, together
with the level of internationalization,
constitutes a crucial resource for mobilization
and influence in the EU arena.
In fact, the more transnational ties and activities
the company has, the more it is interested
in influencing the regulation of the
single market. Such a company is
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naturally much more affected by
acquis communautaire than a company
operating locally within one member
state. The expansion of economic activities can
also be accompanied by socialization to the
international management standards. Finally,
an important position on the European market
should make the firm more autonomous
towards domestic political elites. Meanwhile,
a low level of internationalization impedes
mobilization and implementation of effective
lobbying strategies, while the company is
focused on domestic market and traditional
linkages between the world of business and the
world of politics. In particular, this occurs with
a high level of dependence on politicians and
administration due to the overwhelming and
burdensome intervention of the latter in the
economic activities of private entrepreneurs.
Finally, policy-making in the EU is technical in
nature; and the EU governance system relies to
a significant extent on knowledge and expertise,
which is reflected in the great number of advisory
and expert committees in the Commission and
public hearings in the Parliament. At the same
time, the nature of Polish business-politics
relations has been traditionally based not so
much on information exchange but more on
‘making deals’, nepotism, and corruption. Both
the government and interest organizations are
not yet prepared to play the game by European
rules, too often relying on populist arguments
of national interest or veto (Rey, 09.03.2009;
Karaszewska, 04.08.2009).
Lobbying is far from being the dominant
form of relations between business and politics
in Poland. Socialist tradition of interest
representation as systemic deviation contributed
to the delegitimization of the pluralist game
of interests. Lobbying is not recognized as a
legitimate element of the democratic decisionmaking
process. As interest representation
strategies of argumentation, persuasion and
opinion formation are not well developed