On three modernisation narratives in Poland after 1989

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at the process of socio-economic modernization experienced by Poland in the period following the fall of communism in 1989 through the lens of three major narratives in domestic public discourse: the neoliberal, the conservative and the social democratic. Each of them distributes differently the accents, not only as regards preferred values and directions of change but also the modality, methods and pace of their introduction. Design/methodology/approach – The reflections are inspired by a constructivist approach, stressing the large impact of ideas, narrative and discourse on social change. Moreover the author proposes in the analysis his own identification of three types of modernization: from below, from above and from beyond. Findings – At least two conclusions follow from the paper. The first asserts that across the entire 25-year period from 1989 to 2014, the most powerful presence in the discourse has been marked by the neoliberal modernization narrative, although the popularity of conservative narrative has been important too. The other conclusion can be expressed in a nutshell as a thesis that impacts “from beyond” have had greatly shaped not only particular narratives but also the very systemic transformation of Poland. Those impacts have assumed forms of various transfers (ideological, institutional, financial and policy), with important roles being played by western governments, epistemic communities and integration structures of the western world. Originality/value – The following analysis of the public discourse about the modernization of Poland in the recent 25 years is an attempt to develop an original approach to the said issue from the perspective of the three narratives identified by the author. The emphasis on international factors in explaining the nature of Polish transformations after 1989 appears to be another asset of the paper.