ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains that critical assessment of the dominant approaches to theorizing the political economy of transition and establishes the basis for an alternative approach based on the transnational dynamics of transition. It also provides a conceptual lens to understand transition by focusing on structural change, the social relations of production and the changing social forces engendered through transition. The book discusses the historical legacies that contribute to the configuration of Polish neoliberalism, integration into the global economy through the mechanism of debt, and the coagulation of disparate strands of anti-communism into cohesive social forces that come to transition with a neoliberal agenda. It further explores the extent of transnational orientation in Poland through an evaluation of the level of transnationalization in the finance and production structures and the assumption of neoliberalism as the dominant economic paradigm.
