Abstract
The maintenance of full employment has been the main explicitly stated objective of the employment policy in Poland since the end of the Second World War. The introduction of a highly centralized command system facilitated this task as the system is well adapted to ensuring a high degree of mobilization and full employment of resources and their allocation to some priority sectors, irrespective of the profitability of such ventures.1 The adoption of the Soviet-type ‘inward-looking’ development strategy, based on import substitution and the priority development of industries producing producers’ goods for the domestic investment programme and attempts to achieve the highest possible rates of growth of national product, had a tendency to create an overall over-commitment of resources from the very beginning.2 The interaction of the system and this particular strategy resulted in the emergence of the so-called ‘extensive’ pattern of development. The rates of growth of national product, industrial output and so on, depended on increases in the quantities of inputs rather than on increases in their productivity. A certain industrial structure was created which was geared to this pattern of development.3
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Notes
The author discussed this point in Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘How does the Soviet economy function without free market?’, The Queen’s Quarterly, LXX (4) (1964).
reprinted in M. Bornstein and D. R. Fusfeld (eds), The Soviet Economy: A Book of Readings (Homewood: Irwin), rev. edn (1966) pp. 34–66; 3rd edn (1970) pp. 24–36; 4th edn (1974) pp. 3–16.
an abbreviated text is included in R. T. Gill, Economics: A Text with Included Readings (Pacific Palisades: Goodyear, 1973) pp. 80–4.
Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘The communist pattern of industrialization’, Soviet Studies, XXI (4) (1970) 451–78.
Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘Industrial structure and the intensive pattern of development in Poland’, Jahrbuch der Wirtschaft Osteuropas, 4 (1973) 233–54.
J. Beksiak, Spoleczenstwo gospodarujgce (Warsaw, 1972) pp. 113–26.
This aspect of employment policy has been discussed by the author in Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘Internal migration and economic development under socialism: the case of Poland’, in A. A. Brown and E. Neuberger (eds), Internal Migration: A Comparative Perspective (New York: Academic Press, 1977) pp. 305–27.
For a more detailed discussion see Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘The Polish economy in the 1970s’, in JEC, J. P. Hardt (ed.), East European Economies Post-Helsinki (1977) pp. 816–64.
A. Rajkiewicz, Zatrudnienie w Polsce Ludowej w latach 1950–1970 (Warsaw, 1965) pp. 260–1.
Z. Schulz, Gospodarka planowa, no. 5 (1976) pp. 266–71.
M. Kabaj, Życiegospodarcze, no. 20 (1979) pp. 1, 4.
M. Kabaj, Życiegospodarcze, no. 41 (1979) pp. 1, 4.
A. Karpinski and J. Pajestka in Polityka gospodarcza Polski Ludowej (Warsaw, 1965) pp. 41–3.
M. Olgdzki, Polityka zatrudnienia (Warsaw, 1974) p. 307.
the author has discussed this point in Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘Collectivization and economic development’, The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XXXIII (1) (1967) pp. 1–15.
Rajkiewicz, op. cit., p. 230; H. Jgdruszczak, Zatrudnienie a przemiany spoteczne w Polsce w latach 1944–1960 (Wroclaw, 1972) pp. 168–9.
J. Gorski and M. Kabaj, Polityka gospodarcza P.R.L. (Warsaw, 1974) pp. 194–5; Jedruszczak, op. cit., p. 169.
The author has presented an analysis of the optimum rate of accumulation and some examples of overshooting it in Eastern Europe during the 1950s in Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘Investment policy for economic development: some lessons on the communist experience’, The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XXIX(1) (1963) 26–39.
Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘The strategy of development and Gierek’s economic manoeuvre’, in A. Bromke and J. W. Strong (eds), Gierek’s Poland (New York: Praeger, 1973) pp. 52–70.
Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘East European integration: Comecon’, in JEC, Reorientation and Commercial Relations in the Economies of Eastern Europe (Washington, 1974) pp. 79–134.
Z. M. Fallenbuchl, ‘Policy alternatives in Polish foreign economic relations’, in M. D. Simon and R. E. Kanet, Background to Crisis: Policy and Politics in Gierek’s Poland (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1981) pp. 329–69.
A. Melich, Życie gospodarcze no. 24 (1977) pp. 1–2
J. Gordon, Życie gospodarcze no. 32 (1979) p. 8; Kabaj, ‘Gospodarowanie…’, op. cit., p. 1.
J. Meller, Place a planowanie gospodarcze w Polsce 1950–1975 (Warsaw, 1977) p. 55.
S. Felbur, Gospodarka planowa, no. 4 (1977) pp. 187–93.
This happened in other CMEA countries as well. Z. M. Fallenbuchl, Revue d’etudes comparatives Est-Ouest, 10 (4) (1979) 91–115.
For example, Z. Mikolajczyk, Życie gospodarcze, no. 40 (1980) p. 3
B. Fick, Życie gospodarcze, no. 41 (1980) p. 7
M. Mieszczankowski, Życie gospodarcze, no. 38 (1980) p. 3.
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© 1982 Jan Adam
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Fallenbuchl, Z.M. (1982). Employment Policies in Poland. In: Adam, J. (eds) Employment Policies in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05834-1_2
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