ABSTRACT
Given that the very term ‘the great transformation’ was coined to stress that the transition from a non-market to market economy lasted centuries, three years’ experience in transforming a socioeconomic system may be regarded as too short a period for making convincing generalizations. It should be remembered, however, that the ‘Balcerowicz Programme’ introduced in Poland on 1 January 1990 promised to bring about fundamental systemic changes within two years. We are fully justified, then, in asking how fundamental the systemic changes actually implemented have been.
