Introduction: Tadeusz Kowalik and the Political Economy of the 20th Century

Abstract

Tadeusz Kowalik (1926–2012) is best known as the editor of the two great Polish political economists, Michal Kalecki (1899–1970) and Oskar Lange (1904–1965), an advisor to the Polish trades union movement Solidarity during the 1980s, when it played a key part in bringing down the Communist Government in Poland, and subse- quently a fierce critic of the capitalism established in his country. In his work Kowalik challenged both the commonly accepted view of the ‘Keynesian Revolution’ and the inability of Polish communists to come to terms with their revolutionary past and find a place for themselves in the modern world.