ABSTRACT
The Europeanization of social policy is a well-researched topic. Restricting it to the new member states with socialist pasts and specific social policies focused on social inclusion might bring new insights. The main research topic of this study is the European Union (EU) social inclusion policy implementation in Poland in the long-term perspective (1989–2018). Its theoretical framework is institutionally embedded, bottom-up Europeanization. The description of institutional dynamics is based on the analysis and interpretation of adopted and proposed legal acts and non-binding soft-law documents. Three cases have been selected to show the mechanisms of the EU social inclusion policy implementation. Each case is analysed in the context of national social policy dynamics divided into three periods: pre-accession 1989–2000, accession 2001–2006, and post-accession 2007–2018. The principal conclusion is that the transition from socialism to capitalism in Poland during the 1990s created a critical juncture for emerging and fragmented social inclusion institutions. Their subsequent institutional inertia was decisive for the weak status of the new institutions (social employment, social cooperatives), which was made possible by the critical juncture of accession to the EU. The survival of those innovations was possible due to their own path dependence, but also due to the constant support from internal actors who learned how to use Europe as a source of ideas and money for developing their own social policy agenda despite changing governments and external conditions.
