Globalisation and International Trade in the Eyes of the Polish Society

The chapter compares the Polish society to its international peers to determine the extent to which FTA attitudes are country-specific, and to what extent they fit and connect with the pan-European perspectives. We look closer at the values relevant from the perspective of international trade and the processes of globalisation. How similar or how different are the Poles from other Central-Europeans? How specific is the perspective of transition countries compared to the states with established democracy? Prior to presenting the analyses that could get us closer to these answers, we are pointing to the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis noted and analysed by many sociologists. Especially interesting for us are the conclusions of Alain Touraine and Miroslawa Marody. Then we analyse the results of international social surveys and find that the Polish society quite widely shares the image of living on the “underdeveloped” side of Europe and agrees that Poland is still “catching up” with the world’s more successful parts. This comes together with quite a high level of legitimisation of income inequalities that suggests that Poles are generally quite optimistic about their chances to finally succeed in this “catching-up” process and believe it is possible to do by individual effort.