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

AGNIESZKA REFERENCES LITERATUR K. CIANCIARA
nationally, actors are poorly socialized to
develop the necessary strategies at the EU
level. For instance, consultations and public
hearings are poorly institutionalized in Poland,
which is impeding active engagement in similar
practices in the Brussels arena.
Polish lobbying at the European level is also
characterized by an ad hoc approach. On one
hand, this is due to high costs of permanent
presence in Brussels. On the other hand,
companies still do not possess the awareness
as to the importance of the continuous opinion-shaping
at the EU level. They often limit
themselves to the participation in works of an
EU-level trade association but use it more for
an informative purpose than active interest
representation. The lack of long-term planning
and continuity in business strategies might be
considered a result of a specific economic culture
derived from the post-communist heritage,
in particular business-politics relations
in state-owned companies. Meanwhile, the ad
hoc practice of ‘arranging things’ is fully dysfunctional
in the formalized and highly institutionalized
lobbying environment of the EU.
CONCLUSIONS
Specificities of Polish capitalism are particularly
well reflected in existing patterns of businesspolitics
relations and lobbying. In this
article, I looked at how the post-communist
heritage, transferred into the institutions of
Polish ‘advanced emerging market’, affects
representation of economic interests at both
national and European levels. I made an attempt
to explain the relative ineffectiveness of Polish
lobbying in Brussels, while going beyond the
critical resources approach and pointing to
the characteristics of the CEE institutional
and organizational environment. It seems that
the perceived ineffectiveness results from the
incompatibility of the hybrid, post-communist
socialization context with the institutions of
consolidated democracy and developed market
economy at the EU level.
As stated above, various forms of businesspolitics
relations co-exist in Poland, depending
on the sector, ownership structure, size
and resources of the company, as well as socialization
background of the management.
The partial consolidation of economic elites,
also resulting from the opportunities offered
by EU membership and internationalization
of economic activities, is not yet translated
into effective mobilization of Polish business
interests at the European level. The critical
resources approach neither fully explains the
low level of mobilization in the EU arena, nor
the use of strategies that are not adequate to
the European rules of the game. Among other
explanatory factors proposed, one can find the
argument about the embeddedness in domestic
networks where specific, post-communist
types of business-politics relations dominate.
Clientelistic and oligarchic strategies practiced
in Poland cannot be successfully used in
the European environment, in particular due
to the high level of autonomy of economic
and political elites, as well as scarcity
of Polish politicians and officials occupying
key posts. A lack of tradition Seite Page page 57
and institutionalization of pluralistic
interest representation and civil society,
together with weak financial and human
resources of business organizations, further
obstruct the capacity to exert influence.