Inland waterways and merchant shipping

The middle course of the main Polish river, the Vistula, contains many navigational hazards, and thus the Vistula is a less important waterway than the smaller Oder. The Oder is linked by the modern Gliwice Canal to the Upper Silesian industrial region and carries coal to the port of Szczecin. The Oder basin is also linked to the lower Vistula by the Bydgoszcz Canal. Inland navigation is of little importance in Poland, however, with less than 1 percent of Polish freight being carried on rivers and canals. Shipping is well developed, and there are three large seaports--Szczecin (the largest), Gdynia, and Gdansk--as well as smaller fishing and coastal navigation ports.

Air transport

Domestic and international air transport is provided by LOT (from Polskie Linie Lotnicze), a state-owned enterprise scheduled for partial privatization. There are numerous international routes, centred on the airport at Warsaw.

Administration and social conditions

Political parties

Beginning in 1948, Poland was governed by the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP; Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza), the country's communist party, which was modeled on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The postwar government was run as a dual system in which state organs were controlled by parallel organs of the PUWP. The executive branch of government, therefore, was in effect the PUWP, with the party's first secretary acting as the de facto head of state and most powerful authority. The party's Political Bureau, or Politburo, operated as the central administration, and the party ensured its control over all offices and appointments by use of the nomenklatura, a list of politically reliable people.

Two other parties, the United Peasants' Party (Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe; ZSL) and the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne; SD), were permitted to exist, but only as entirely subservient allies of the PUWP. However, in 1989 economic and political problems obliged the government to recognize the independent trade union Solidarity (which had been banned not long after it came into being in 1980) and allow it to contest at least some seats in a general election. The PUWP was guaranteed 65 percent of the seats in the lower house of the Sejm (the state legislature), but Solidarity won all the rest and all but one of those in the Senate, going on to form Poland's first postcommunist government with the support of the SD and ZSL, which broke their alliance with the PUWP. In 1990 the Polish communist party voted to replace the PUWP with two social democratic parties, the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland and the Social Democratic Union. In the same year, Lech Walesa, the leader of Solidarity, was elected president.

Thereafter, however, as the costs of economic reform were felt by Poles, support for Solidarity waned and the party split into several smaller groups. In the first completely free elections, in 1991, no party obtained more than an eighth of the vote, leading to a succession of short-lived coalition governments. In 1993 the postcommunist and Peasant parties won a majority of seats, and in the presidential election of 1995 Walesa was defeated by a former communist, Aleksander Kwasniewski. There has been no fundamental change in economic and political policy: all postcommunist governments have given high priority to the integration of Poland into the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). However, the government of former communists has reduced the role of the Roman Catholic church in schools and eased the highly restrictive antiabortion legislation of the early 1990s.

State constitution and institutions

The constitution of Poland's postwar socialist state, the Polish People's Republic, took effect in 1952 but was amended numerous times, most significantly in early 1989, when constitutional reforms worked out between the government and Solidarity were passed by the Sejm. Among the changes were the replacement of the Council of State by the office of president (a position that had been eliminated in 1952) and the reinstatement of the Senate, which in 1946 had been abolished in an allegedly rigged national referendum. The existing Sejm, with 460 members, became the lower house of the new National Assembly, and the Senate, or the upper house, was assigned 100 members. Additional reforms passed later in 1989 by the National Assembly included the guarantee of free formation of political parties and the return of the state's official name to the Republic of Poland.

In 1992 an interim constitution was adopted until a final document could be promulgated. This Small Constitution established a mixed presidential-parliamentary form of government. Under its provisions, the president is directly elected to not more than two five-year terms, serves as commander in chief of the armed forces, has the power to declare martial law or a state of emergency, and can veto an act of the legislature (which, in turn, can override that veto with a two-thirds majority vote). The president cannot dismiss the government but can reject nominees to the post of prime minister. All members of the National Assembly are popularly elected to four-year terms. The Council of Ministers, or government, is appointed by the prime minister (though some appointments are subject to consultation with the president). Under the Small Constitution the prime minister is less subject to the collective will of the Council of Ministers than previously.

Regional administration

The regional administration is on three levels. The largest units are the 49 województwa (provinces), followed by 267 regional authorities and some 2,500 gminy (towns and rural communes). These last are the fundamental territorial units within Poland.

Judicial system

The Small Constitution guarantees the independence of the judiciary. Poland has a Supreme Court and other special judicial bodies (including the Supreme Administrative Court, military courts, and industrial tribunals) as well as general courts, comprising provincial and district courts. General courts deal with criminal, civil, and family matters; commercial courts deal with civil law disputes between businesses. There is also a Court of Appeals.

Armed forces

Poland's armed forces consist of three services--the army, the air force, and the navy. Under the communist government, the armed forces were highly politicized. The military command was controlled by the party's Main Political Administration, which also oversaw the political indoctrination and supervision of all units. Officers were trained in the party's Academy of Political and Military Sciences, and most were party members. Senior officers normally graduated from Soviet academies. The country was a founding member of the Warsaw Pact, a mutual-defense organization dominated by the Soviet Union, and supplied the second largest contingent to its forces. When the pact was disbanded in 1991, Poland indicated that it wished to become part of NATO. Its forces have been depoliticized and have been cooperating closely with NATO forces in military training.

Security services

The regular defense of Poland's frontiers is provided by the border guard. The Office of the Protection of the Constitution (UOP), established in 1989, is charged with the country's intelligence services.

Normal civilian police services are under the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Under the communist government, police services were undertaken by the Citizens' Militia--of which the Motorized Detachments of the Citizens' Militia (ZOMO) acted as a mobile, paramilitary riot squad--and the Security Service (SB), a secret political police force. In the early 1980s ZOMO was extensively used to enforce martial law and to control demonstrations. The paramilitary nature of the Policja ("Police"), as they became known after 1991, has been much reduced.

Education

Schools of all types and on all levels are free, the system of schooling is standard, and attendance from age 7 to 15 is compulsory. The system contains nursery, primary, and secondary schools. There are several types of secondary schools offering basic vocational training, vocational and technical training, and general college-preparatory education. Basically, all schools are subject to the Ministry of National Education, but medical schools and colleges are subject to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, army colleges to the Ministry of National Defense, and higher schools of art to the Ministry of Culture and Arts.

Prominent universities include the University of Warsaw (founded 1818), the Jagiellonian University (1364) in Kraków, and the Catholic University of Lublin (1918). The highest academic institution is the Polish Academy of Sciences, which has numerous research institutes and represents Polish learning abroad.

Health and welfare

Health care in Poland has been handled largely by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, which oversees the health departments of the regional governments. Facilities include clinics; hospitals; sanatoriums, rest homes, and spas; and ambulance services. Private medical and dental practices proliferated after the fall of communism, and the pharmaceutical industry also was privatized. In general the health care system was in transition in the 1990s. Medical services were seriously strained during periods of general economic crisis.

Under communism social insurance for the health service covered free treatment for all workers and the members of their families, as well as for pensioners, invalids, students, and certain others. In addition, there was a social service whose purpose was to ensure a suitable means of support for the elderly and invalids. There are homes for pensioners, the chronically sick, and the mentally retarded. In the early 1990s, however, a number of laws were enacted that reduced the formerly comprehensive coverage of the unemployment program.

As a result of the program of urbanization that began in the 1940s, Polish cities became overwhelmed by migrant workers from the countryside, and the demand for housing vastly exceeded supply. In urban areas, various cooperative housing schemes were put into operation by the local government authorities, but the standard family apartment was inadequate for many families. As a result of the low priority placed on the creation of housing during communist rule, housing shortages were extreme in the 1980s and '90s. In postcommunist Poland private ownership of housing increased significantly.

Folk culture

Because of rapid industrialization and urbanization, Poland's traditional folk culture has been seriously undermined since World War II. Regional dress, regional forms of speech, peasant arts and crafts, and religious and folk festivals have all been swamped by mass culture from the new cities and the media. In an effort to compensate, the Roman Catholic church has tried to preserve the religious elements of folk culture, notably in the large annual pilgrimages to shrines such as Czestochowa, Kalwaria, Zebrzydowska, Lanckorona, or Piekary Slaskie. The communist authorities supported folk music and folk dancing. The colourful and stylized repertoire of the State Folk Ensemble, Mazowsze, for example, won international acclaim. Several regional communities, including the Górale ("Highlanders") of Podhale, the Kurpie in the northeast, and the inhabitants of Lowicz, near Warsaw, have created an authentic blend of the old and the new.

Literature

Polish literature developed long ago into the main vehicle of national expression. For many Poles, their literature stands with their religion as the twin pillars of their heritage. It provides one of their most cherished links with Western civilization and one of the main safeguards of their national identity. The close relationship between local political events and literary trends, however, together with a necessary resort to elaborate allegories, allusions, and symbols during the communist period, rendered many excellent Polish works inaccessible to the foreign public. (For detailed discussion, see Polish literature.)

The first half of the 19th century produced the three greatest Polish poets: Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Slowacki, and Zygmunt Krasinski. In the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the great Polish prose writers--including the Nobel Prize winners Henryk Sienkiewicz and Wladyslaw Reymont--were active. Among the postwar Polish poets are Zbigniew Herbert and the Nobel Prize winners: Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska.

Music

Polish music, like Polish literature, has a continuous tradition reaching back into the Middle Ages. As the least political of the arts, it suffered less from official constraints. Founded on the inimitable rhythms and melodies of folk music--the krakowiak, mazurka, and polonaise--its native characteristics developed early, and a distinctive school of Polish church music already flourished during the Renaissance. The first major Polish opera, Cud mniemany czyli Krakowiacy i Górale ("The Pretended Miracle; or, The Krakovians and the Highlanders"), by Jan Stefani and Wojciech Boguslawski, was staged in 1794. In the 19th century Stanislaw Moniuszko wrote a series of popular operas, including Halka, Straszny dwór ("The Haunted Manor"), and Hrabina ("The Countess"). Frédéric Chopin is usually considered to have created the quintessence of Polishness in music. In addition to his renown as one of the supreme master composers, he was the first of a constant stream of instrumentalists from Polish lands, among them many prominent Jewish performers, who have won international acclaim. Pianists such as Ignacy Paderewski and Artur Rubinstein and violinists such as Henryk Szeryng attest to the vitality of Polish musical life. Contemporary Polish composition has been dominated by the names of Karol Szymanowski, Witold Lutoslawski, and Krzysztof Penderecki. All branches of classical music--opera, symphony, chamber, and choral--are well represented in Poland, and several orchestras and choirs appear regularly on the international circuit. Popular music in Poland is derived largely from Western styles, although Polish jazz has earned a reputation for experiment and excellence.