The evolution of the Polish civil service since 1989

The aim of the article is to characterize the changes which have taken place in the Polish civil service since 1989. By using the neo-institutional method, the author discusses the political, social and economic conditions in which the Polish civil service functioned, as well as their influence on its shape and the direction of its activities. The author demonstrates how the civil service in Poland has undergone a succession of alterations under successive political administrations, which instead of developing the civil service as an instrument for the effective management of the state, had instead treated it as political loot. To prove this thesis, the author attempts to analyze particular stages of the formation of the civil service, and the consequences of those changes for the effectiveness and transparency of the state.