New Structural Economics and Poland's development challenges

This chapter looks at New Structural Economics (NSE) from the point of view of its usefulness for the modernization challenge Poland is currently facing the convergence with the "old European Union" members in perspective of decades to come. The attractiveness of NSE approach stems from its undeniable modernization achievements in the countries of the Far East. Three issues are considered as significant for the potential usefulness of NSE for solving Polish development problems: (a) the notion of endowment, exogenous resources, which determine the structure of modern post- industrial economy, (b) the global context of modernization policy; (c) the role of the state in the implementation of economic policy aimed at improvement of competitiveness on the global scale. In conclusion, it is stated that, from the point of view of Poland's needs, NSE presents several useful recommendations but also the risk of a potential trap related to methods in which the state (the government) intends to implement the modernization policy. NSE implicitly assumes non-political nature of the state. According to it, the state enjoys solid and permanent mandate and administrative potential to implement its strategy without having to worry about voices contesting its ways and means. Such approach is very attractive from a pragmatic point of view of the speed of implementation, however, this approach is not compatible with the Polish (or, in a broader scope, Western) reality of the political state, i.e. being subject to the democratic control.