Appropriation Mechanisms: the Functioning of “Nomenklatura Companies” in the Period of Economic Transformation
Appropriation Mechanisms: the Functioning of “Nomenklatura Companies” in the Period of Economic Transformation

Summary/Abstract: This study analyses the issue of enfranchisement of the nomenklatura [uwłaszczenie nomenklatury] at a time of economic transformation in Poland (1989–1990). The term „enfranchisement/propertisation of nomenklatura” is used here to describe the proces of Communist party members and high ranking officials gaining the right to own and manage state properties and assets (from state owned enterprises). The main tool for this appropriation of means during the transformation period was so the called nomenklatura company [społka nomenklaturowa]. It can be defined as a company that was closely related to a state-owned enterprise, and its shareholders were the management of that enterprise as well as members of the party and state apparatus (or members of their families), connected by political party codependence, and administrative or social ties. The actual purpose of establishing and operating the nomenklatura company was for the company’s management to exploit it for personal benefits at the expense of stateowned enterprises. The key element of this study is to analyse two issues: the politics of the Communist authorities towards appropriation and the politics of the Mazowiecki government and other Solidarity cabinets regarding this problem. An analysis of how those groups made their decisions and how they chose strategies in dealing with the appropriation of means by nomenklatura shall make it evident that this phenomenonwas, in principle, an unforeseen side effect of economic reforms rather than the result of planned actions.

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