Abstract

Within East European countries during the 1970s, Poland's economic development is marked by special ups and downs. Thus, in dealing with the causes of Polish economic and political crises, a distinction must be made between structural problems typical of all existing socialist systems and specific mistakes of Polish economic policy.

In 1979 the GNP declined by 2% (instead of growing, according to a modest plan, by 2.8%). This was an alarming signal for existing-socialist party bureaucrats for whom socialism is distinguished from capitalism by a greater growth rate. But it was also an alarming signal in terms of the socio-economic situation of the population (in the early 1960s declining rates of growth had led to economic reforms — even if only technocratic ones).