ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two waves of post-communist reform contributing to the reconfiguration of the Eastern Central Europe political economy. Both waves of neoliberalization demonstrate the implications of integration into an emergent global political economy, vital when we consider the potency of the political and economic principles associated with neoliberalism. The success of neoliberalization has been evident in the construction of a new hegemony around orthodox economic policy and the containment of socio-political domestic demands, and the organizing, sanctioning and legitimizing of class domination within capitalism. Following the economic downturn in December 1991, the Olszewski government was elected on a populist, anti-Shock Therapy vote. At the beginning of 1990, the Government of Poland launched a far-reaching program to stabilize the economy and transform it progressively to a market system. The rapid creation of a market economy and rapid privatization caused considerable stratification in Polish society; in short, the rapid enrichment of the few and impoverishment of many.
