Abstract

This article discusses the past twenty-five years of economic and political transition in Poland It traces the origin of the Polish dilemma by pointing out the Grand Failures of the command-and-control economy discusses the philosophical underpinnings of the reform effort and delineates the major components of the Balcerowicz Plan with a special emphasis on Poland s privatization program The article then moves to a discussion of the importance of Foreign Direct Investment FDI in the Polish economy and describes several important surveys which point to the success of the Polish experiment in areas such as business attractiveness overall climate for business and business friendliness In addition to providing up-to-date statistics on Polish economic performance through the end of 2013 the article concludes with an observation as to the future for Poland s commitment to economic change and economic development The authors have spent more than twenty five years researching writing and commenting on economic transition in Poland publishing more than 35 peer-reviewed academic articles 51 papers and two academic-research books during the period of their collaboration Much of the background information for this paper is based on prior research framed especially for this appraisal