Civil Society and the Three Inequalities in Contemporary Poland

In Poland, following democratization in 1989, a strongly mobilized and contentious civil society (“contentious reformism”) led to the creation of a rich and vibrant landscape of civil society organizations. New associations emerged, like unions, religious and cultural organizations, NGOs, and charitable organizations, and although many of them did not survive the transition, others lost members, and protest waned and transformed over time, they still made Poland a country where civil society is denser and richer than in most of the democracies in post-communist Europe, surpassing even some of the older democracies in Southern and Western Europe. More importantly still, the authors assert, it contributed to the diffusion through Polish society of a culture of widespread volunteerism and charitable behavior, making for  a democratic regime where the effects of inequality tend to be more easily mitigated.  The article also speaks to the issue of the impact of a changing civil society structure upon different types of inequality. The authors argue that with the rise of NGOs and the decline of traditional organizations such as unions the impact of civil society has been stronger in reducing political and civic inequalities than economic ones. Despite the growing importance of the third sector as an employer and of its role in policy-making, its capacity to curb the growth of market-based inequalities has been limited by its emerging pattern of embeddedness in the economy.