This 1989 book deals with the changing position and role of the
Polish United Workers' Party and its apparatus between 1975 and
1986. Particular attention is paid to the provincial party
organisation and to the party secretaries who direct its
activities. Their role and the way they perform it is seen as a
major determinant of the nature of party leadership and, more
generally, of the strength of political authority in communist
states: Dr Lewis argues that the protracted crisis of the Polish
system reflects less the weakness of communist party power than
critical problems encountered in accumulating and exercising
authority. The crisis of 1980 was as much due to inadequate
political strategies as to the economic failings of the Gierek
regime, and during the solidarity period the party apparatus (and
particularly the provincial organisation) acted as a major source
of resistance: military rule provided little opportunity for a
reassertion of party leadership or the consolidation of political
authority. The individual biographies of over 700 party officials
have been scrutinised to produce this major survey of Polish
policy.
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