THE VICISSITUDES OF THE MARKET PRINCIPLE

The general thesis of the article may be formulated as follows: the ma rket ideology had a great mobilizational power in overthrowing the com mand economy in Poland and elsewhere in central Europe. Implementation of the market principle, especially in a strict neo-liberal version, soon brought about some disillusionment in society as a whole, and par ticularly in those social strata which traditionally were a solid base for the Solidarity movement. Since the transition to democracy and a market economy was undertaken in response to public pressure, this gro wing disillusionment creates a serious barrier to further transformati on of the economy. This article deals more specifically with the follo wing issues: the structural legacy of the command economy in post-comm unist societies, the integrative and disintegrative aspects of market principle implementation, and a tentative assessment of implications o f the collapse of the Soviet bloc for the emergence of a global market .