ABSTRACT
The characteristic feature of the Polish economy shaping the system of interest representation is the domination of the state sector. The idea of a social contract is sometimes expressed as an immediate remedy for existing weaknesses of the interest representation. Entering into a contract should guarantee a possibly fast and conflict-free way of taking the Polish economy through a transitional period. Another sphere of conflicts emerges as a result of the government's policy toward state enterprises. Criticism of the government's program from the populist position became an immediate weapon in the fight for influence, this becoming acute with the approach of parliamentary elections in Poland. The institutionalization and technocratization of the resolution of social conflicts under the socialist system has its repercussions in the sphere of social consciousness. The course of the presidential campaign showed clearly that there are no political and institutional structures in which the framework of such an agreement could be negotiated and recognized.
