ABSTRACT
The formation of Solidarity in 1980 was an extraordinary event in the history of the communist world and in the march toward its final demise. Communist rule in Poland, the government lost control over the budget, the banking system, and the balance-of-payments situation. In Poland, an unemployment benefit system, financed by contributions from the employers and government transfers, was introduced on the eve of the stabilization programme. Under the social pressure of 1980-1981, the communist authorities made new economic proposals that basically amounted to radical reform, planning to implement them gradually beginning in 1982. The reform introduced three types of prices: fixed, regulated, and contractual. The return of open debate after 1986 revealed important changes in public opinion: The problem of capital markets arid, thus, of the subjection of economic development and structural transformation to the rules of the market emerged at that time.
