ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the story of Poland’s transition and transformation and highlights the key issues that tend to be underappreciated in the popular narrative on Poland and its path away from communism. It discusses the key definitional and conceptual issues pertaining to transition and transformation. The chapter outlines the key aspects of Polish transition and transformation, including institutionalization of external relations and liberalization. The unique feature of transition and transformation as they unfolded in Central Europe in the 1990s is that no one had ever done it before. Conditionality attached to financial assistance, specialization of assistance, and aid sequencing played an important role in consolidating Poland’s reform zeal. Conditionality attached to financial assistance encouraged the definition of a specific scope and implementation of specific reform items. The unemployment in Poland was structural, i.e. clearly linked to the overwhelming changes in the structure of the economy.
