TINA and alternative strategies for Polish economic transformation*

Jerzy Osiatyński

The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2020, vol. 31, issue 2, 249-261

Abstract: The article examines the commonly shared belief that ‘there was no alternative’ (the TINA hypothesis) regarding the transformation strategy in Poland in 1989–1990. This belief is shown to be incorrect, with evidence that an alternative was contemplated. Following a visit in Stockholm in January 1989 of high-ranking experts of the Consultative Economic Council (a government think-tank established shortly after martial law was introduced on 13 December 1980), the Council produced a report on the Swedish Model . The report was hoped to provide foundations for shifting the still centrally planned Polish economy towards economic efficiency and the social welfare standards of the Nordic countries. After the 1989 parliamentary elections and the appointment of the non-communist government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the political environment changed radically and the priority of the new government was to swiftly establish a truly liberal market economy in Poland. The article shows, however, that notwithstanding those revolutionary changes, a high-level debate took place only a few weeks after the new government came to power to discuss an option of a more gradual strategy of Poland’s economic transformation that at the same time would be of a more social democratic nature. An insider account of that debate and of its external and internal constraints is given in the subsequent sections of the article. JEL Codes: P11, P21

Keywords: Economic transformation; stabilisation package; structural reforms; Swedish model; TINA hypothesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:31:y:2020:i:2:p:249-261

DOI: 10.1177/1035304620930188

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