Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses problems of economic reform and the privatization of the hypertrophic state-owned sector via the sell off of small enterprises, the establishment of new private-sector enterprises by Polish and foreign capital. It also addresses issues of change in the bases of socioeconomic inequality, and the principles for legitimating that inequality. The book traces public moods — satisfaction and dissatisfaction as citizens, workers, and consumers — in their relation to the pervasive bureaucratization of life under Polish economic and state administration. It deals with a number of ambiguities in public opinion and difficulties in ascertaining clear trends and tendencies. The book focuses on various indicators of political diversity emerging from the “old” Solidarity in the period running up to the 1990 presidential elections and presents the individual to sociopolitical change via data from sociopsychological research.