ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that both the long-delay, and the particular characteristics of the reforms, suggest that the richest Poles took what was a standard set of policy prescriptions from the World Bank, and fashioned themselves a unique set of reforms. In doing so, they reveal a functioning democratic system wherein both the relative winners and losers from earlier reforms could have their voices heard. However, before examining their abilities to influence politics, the chapter begins with the privatization process that gave rise to these groups, and helped shape their respective interests over how to reform the pension system and influence the political process. To speed the development of a reform package, a special working group was created comprised of policy experts and trade unionists. Poland became the only country considered to directly link the proceeds from privatization to the funding of the pension system. By the late 1990s, the Polish pension system was in dire need of reform.
