Urban Social Problems in Poland

Abstract

This article examines developmental processes in postwar Poland. The primacy of politics over economy is an ideological principle of socialist systems. Developmental processes, therefore, are controlled by political and not economic logic. After the initial period of political pluralism in Poland (1944-1948), when the improvement of social consumption was outlined as a developmental strategy, the subsequent political programs fostered overindustrialization or relative under urbanization. Polish cities were deprived of autonomous developmental functions, and various industrial branches became the only forces responsible for the social consumption provisions. Urban social problems and subsequent waves of protest resulted from the uneven distribution of the costs of growth among different sectors of society and, indirectly, from the course of industrialization-urbanization processes. Increasing social inequality, persistent housing problems and lack of municipal participatory democracy were caused by the macrosocial determinants of the developmental strategies.