Rozłupany świat. Dwa modele polityczno-gospodarcze na scenie globalnej
A Split World. Two Political-Economic Models on the Global Stage

Summary/Abstract: The paper addresses the question, why in the last 40 years China has experienceda historically unprecedented economic growth – amounting on average to ninepercent per year – while in the Western world the pace of growth is around threetimes smaller. The high dynamics of Chinese economic growth has been thoroughly described, however there is no satisfactory explanation of its causes. It iswell known that high dynamics is favored by a low starting level, but every country at some point started from a low level, and few managed to achieve Chineseresults. Therefore, the causes need to be sought elsewhere. Many premises pointto the specifics of Chinese political-economic system. Therefore, the whole article is devoted to the comparison of the Chinese and Western systems. The ideological and political competition between the East and West is beyond theagenda. Even the arms race, though it still exists, does not play as big of a roleas it used to. Conversely, the models of functioning of the economy have steppedto the forefront. An especially important issue appears to be the confrontationof the Chinese – or, more broadly speaking, Eastern – model of authoritarianpolitical power combined with market economy with the Western model of freemarket and democracy. It is the Eastern model which emerges victorious fromthis confrontation. The challenge has been set and the West cannot afford toignore it. The inquiries presented here employ a historical analysis method ina model based approach.

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