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April 1994 - present
Publications
Publications (37)
"An Institutional Theory of Communist Regimes", publishjed in 1992, explains Communism as an ideological and political phenomenon. It was a product of the decay of the imperial Russia that brought to power a revolutionary force - Bolsheviks and their communist party. The author argues that, if historical circumstances brought communist to power, th...
This is the authorized transcript of a discussion the Kamińskis’ book. The discussants pointed out the impact of internal threats to liberal democracy, such as the growth of state regulation over the economy and bureaucratization, the oligarchization of democratic elites, populism, and cultural relativism. The discussants also analyzed external thr...
Russia's continuing aggression against Ukraine is exceptional both in terms of its scale and its global implications. A peaceful and prosperous future for Ukraine, neighbouring states and indeed the entire continent, depends upon two interrelated factors. The first is Ukraine's ability to win, with Western support, the war initiated against it by t...
Over two centuries, the Western liberal-constitutional order has displayed remarkable capacity to adapt and generate unprecedented levels of prosperity and social and economic development. While the conditions of human existence had hardly changed before the First Industrial Revolution, subsequent transformations – made possible by the liberal-cons...
The paper begins with the review of the menu of institutional choices related to the type of government, electoral system and vertical organization of the state and their impact on performance as reported in political science and constitutional political economy literature. It is posited that the binary outcome: democracy vs. autocracy is a functio...
In this article, we develop an analytical framework drawing upon Acemoglu’s and Robinson’s theory that links developmental potential of the state to its political and economic institutions (inclusive and extractive), and that of Etel Solingen’s relating type of governing coalitions to foreign policy strategies and regional politics. States that ado...
Recent years have witnessed the publication of a number of research papers and books seeking to assess threats of electoral victories of anti-establishment politicians and political parties, described as authoritarian populists. This essay focuses on three books directly addressing the origins and threats of authoritarian populism to democracy. It...
Recent years have witnessed the publication of a number of research papers
and books seeking to assess threats of electoral victories of anti-establishment
politicians and political parties, described as authoritarian populists. This essay
focuses on three books directly addressing the origins and threats of authoritarian
populism to democracy. It...
W niniejszym artykule autorzy dokonują oceny koncepcji Moski i Michelsa w perspektywie użyteczności w rozumieniu problemów współczesnego świata oraz poddają weryfikacji „spiżowe prawo oligarchii” wedle badań przeprowadzonych przez Lipseta, Trowa i Colemana. W przekonaniu autorów badania nad Międzynarodowym Związkiem Drukarzy (ITU), które miały wyja...
The purpose of the article is to identify causes of the observed persistence of weaknesses of the liberal constitutional order in Poland. After thirty years since the fall of communism, the institutional foundations of its political system have been showing growing dysfunctions such as low quality of the law; inefficient judiciary; clientelism in t...
Belarus' economy appears to be stuck in a bad equilibrium and faces gloomy economic prospects. Decent economic growth performance came to a halt in 2009. The reasons for a slowdown and prospects of stagnation are both domestic and external. Externally, Belarus was hit by falling oil prices driving down the size of Russian oil subsidy and contractin...
While there is a wealth of studies on selected aspects of economic and political transitions
from communism, there are few, if any, analyses of the emergence of new political orders in terms
of constitutional engineering, i.e. the adoption of the meta-rules governing the rules defining both
the political structure and determining underpinnings of t...
The purpose of the article is to assess the explanatory power of Niccolò Machiavelli's, Mancur Olson's and Ian Bremmer's approaches to political regime change. The common feature of these different theoretical models is the dichotomous vision of political systems-authoritarianism versus republicanism/democracy and systemic transformation. These mod...
The paper attempts to examine regional orders after the collapse of communism applying an analytical framework that we have developed for this purpose. The framework combines Daron Acemonglu's and James Robinson's approach to the study of social dynamics, our model of transition from communism, and Etel Solingen's approach to study confl ict/ coope...
Przedmiotem artykułu są pokomunistyczne przemiany ustrojowe rozpatrywane w perspektywie politologii i ekonomii politycznej konstytucjonalizmu. Pierwsza część dotyczy występujących w literaturze założeń teoretycznych oraz hipotez empirycznych. Nacisk położono na wybór typu rządów, rodzaju ordynacji wyborczej i organizacji pionowej państwa. Część dru...
CONSTITUTIONAL ENGINEERING IN TRANSITIONS FROM COMMUNISM
S u m m a r y
While there is a wealth of studies on selected aspects of economic and political transitions
from communism, there are few, if any, analyses of the emergence of new political orders in terms
of constitutional engineering, i.e. the adoption of the meta-rules governing the rules d...
The paper critically assesses Acemoglu’s and Robinson’s framework for examining economic development. The framework is applied to cases spreading over a period of more than two thousand years. Yet, the framework—and consequently its implementation—suffer from serious methodological flaws. First, the authors fail to precisely define basic concepts a...
This note seeks to use data collected in the World Bank's 'Knowledge for Development' database to develop an index providing a quick assessment of compatibility between economic regime and a country's potential in terms of the quality of human capital and attained level of development of Information and Communication Technologies together with the...
This paper uses data collected in the World Bank's 'Knowledge for Development' database to develop an index providing a quick assessment of the extent to which the economic regime undercuts the utilization of a country's potential in terms of the quality of human capital, attained level of development of information and communication technologies t...
WE STARTED WRITING THIS LETTER ON 22 DECEMBER 1990, the day that Lech Walesa was sworn in before the Polish Sejm as the first President of Poland ever elected in national elections. Even during this memorable ceremony, some MPs could not hide their deep dissatisfaction. They shared with a large portion of intellectuals of the world the conviction t...
This is the second volume in a two‐volume series on democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe. The series focuses on three major aspects of democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe: institutional engineering, transnational pressures, and civil society. This volume analyses the external parameters of democratic consolidation in 13 European countr...
The paper critically examins some justifications for the tacit acceptance of corruption by the post-1989 governments in Poland. Corruption is seen as a factor contributing to the de-institutionalization of the political and economic system. Importance of the state is emphasised because the success of the present transition depends on the quality of...
This article examines the problem of the public and the private in terms of culture and social organization. Two strategies for building societal structures are distinguished: the bottom-up and the top-down. More specifically, the liberal and the Marxist-Leninist solutions are discussed. It is claimed that only in the first case is the term "public...
The paper deals with institutional change in Poland. The accompanying pherlomenon is an escalating wave of entrepreneurial ventures. They take on different legal forms. The most popular, limited liability companies, emerge in the private, the cooperative, and the state sectors, and often across these sectors. These developments give rise to new int...
This paper offers an institutional and evolutionary interpretation of the Soviet-type state. Coercion, corruption and reform are treated as three distinct principles organizing the system of rule and the developmental potential of the state. The strong reliance on coercion characteristic of Stalin's period gave way to the corruption of the society...
Poland's vital interests are to a large degree determined by its specific geographical position. The territory of Poland was a very important theatre of frequent wars fought in Europe in the last three hundred and fifty years, and this contributed to Poland's relative backwardness compared to the rest of the continent. The heavy damage inflicted on...
