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The socialist corporation and technocratic power : the Polish United Workers' Party, industrial organisation and workforce control, 1958-80
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ISBN: 052124269X 0521070279 0511895801 Year: 1982 Publisher: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press,

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In this book Dr Woodall analyses the political implications of the pursuit of industrial growth for the authority of the Polish United Workers' Party. She argues that political constraints on the available options for economic reform have encouraged a policy of merger of industrial enterprises into large `corporate' units since 1958. Although they are only a shadow of their Western counterparts, these socialist corporations' nevertheless pose considerable problems for the role of a Marxist-Leninist party in industry. While this does not manifest itself in the emergence of a clearly identifiable 'technocratic' class of managers challenging the legitimacy of the Party, it does involve difficulties caused by an increasingly 'technicist' ethos of industrial management which eschews the possibility of meaningful workforce participation. Dr Woodall thus shows how the over-zealous pursuit of industrial integration and concentration in the 1970s was, despite attempts by the Polish United Workers' Party to reformulate its 'leading role', one of the major factors contributing to the industrial unrest which brought about the fall of the Gierek leadership in 1980.

The collapse of communist power in Poland : strategic misperceptions and unanticipated outcomes
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ISBN: 9781134208012 1280377267 9786610377268 0203027760 1134208014 9780203027769 9781134207961 9781134208005 9780415368056 9780415674935 1134208006 0415368057 041567493X Year: 2017 Publisher: Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge,

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Based on extensive original research, including interviews with key participants, this book investigates the sudden and unforeseen collapse of communist power in Poland in 1989. It sets out the sequence of events, and examines the strategies of the various political groupings prior to the partially free election of June 1989. This volume argues that the specific negotiating strategies adopted by the communist party representatives in the Round Table discussions before the elections was a key factor in communism's collapse. The book shows that on many occasions, PZPR decision-makers i

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