Accounting for the Difference: The Fate of Polish Nomenklaturas Since 1989
Abstract
Benjamin Disraeli's pronouncement is worth heeding. His dictum foreshadowed the 1993 Polish election results and was further confirmed by the 1995 victory of Aleksander Kwasmewski, a post-Communist, over Lech Walesa, the incumbent president and former Solidarity leader. Some observers depicted these electoral results as proof that the Communist menace still exists and could yet derail Polish democratization. My paper will not analyze the 1995 elections in Poland per se. Instead, I will concentrate on a more limited question, i.e. the reasons for the continued presence of former nomenklatura members in government positions and whether such a presence is proof of backsliding in the transition to democracy. All countries that undergo a wrenching political transformation face a similar problem where to find the expertise and manpower to replace the discredited or deposed elites that once ran the country. Poland has not been spared this dilemma. Yet, the absorption of the nomenklaturas into modernized government structures and into the economic life of the country appears to have been more successful and less socially diverse than in other Eastern European countries. What made the Polish case different?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA442044
Entities
People
- Jeannette P. Dubrow
Organizations
- National War College