ABSTRACT
In this chapter I focus on the way in which habitual expectations, attitudes, and patterns of action shaped during the years of the communist regime affect current developments in Poland. The concepts of state and society play an important rôle in this analysis, mainly because of the logic of the reforms now being introduced. The primary objective of these reforms is the transformation of general systemic principles, the underlying assumption being that “capitalist” institutional structures-a market economy and a democratic political system-will produce a “capitalist” society-a competitive society that should emerge as a result of the institutional changes.
