Poland

THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND HAS a history that has been filled with attempts by other countries to eradicate the identity of the Polish people and refuse to recognize the country's right to exist. Between 1772 and 1795, agreements among Russia, Prussia, and Austria gave each country a section of Poland. A brief period of Polish independence between the two world wars was followed by German invasion in August 1939, setting off events that turned into World War II.

Following the war, the Soviet Union annexed Poland into the communist bloc. Poland exercised a fairly liberal brand of communism that allowed it to reassert its own identity to some extent. In 1980 the Solidarity movement evolved from the formation of a trade union that a decade later transformed Polish politics when the Soviet bloc dissolved. The new government initiated a “shock therapy” brand of economics that turned Poland into one of the strongest economies in central Europe. The period of low growth and high unemployment that followed resulted in the electoral defeat of the Solidarity Trade Union. In 1999, Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and became a member of the European Union five years later.

The Polish economy is diversified, with over half of the workforce involved in services and nearly a third engaged in industry. One of Poland's greatest resources is [Page 831]its 45.91 percent of arable land. Over 16 percent of the labor force are employed in agriculture, which is affected by periodic floods, inefficiency, and an investment shortage. Other resources include coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, and lead. Privatization and liberalized business laws have increased the number of small and medium-sized firms in Poland. Unfortunately, legal and bureaucratic problems persist, heightened by frequent charges of government corruption.

A smokestack plume over the skyline of Warsaw, Poland, illustrates the the country's industrial base, which is continuing its economic privatization. Nearly 20 percent of the population were unemployed in 2005.

Poland is an upper-middle-income nation with a per capita annual income of $12,000 and a growth rate of 5.6 percent. However, 18.4 percent of Poles live in poverty, and 19.5 percent of the labor force are unemployed. Efforts to improve living standards through healthcare, education, and pension system reforms overtaxed the state budget to the point that cutbacks of around $17 billion have been initiated. While inequality is not great in Poland, it does exist. The poorest 20 percent live on 7.3 percent of available resources while the richest 20 percent share 31.6 percent. Poland ranks 31.6 percent on the Gini Index of Human Inequality.

The rights of Polish women are not always respected, although legal discrimination against women is a thing of the past. Women continue to lag behind men economically, and women (20.6 percent) are more likely than men (18.3 percent) to be unemployed. Women are also likelier than men to become victims of long-term unemployment.

Female employment is to a large extent dependent on adequate childcare, and many women have left the workforce in light of the fact that quality childcare has become increasingly difficult to afford since the government liquidated 50 percent of subsidized facilities in response to a declining birthrate. Government-subsidized [Page 832]kindergartens have been cut by 30 percent generally and by 40 percent in rural areas. In 2003, 12 percent of unemployed women were receiving some government assistance.

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