I define modes of business-government relations by the actor, which represents business. In the association state, business associations are dominant. In the company state, the firm directly represents itself. In the party state, access to the political system is mediated by parties, with which businesses must identify themselves. In the soft state, the personal connections of businesspeople are the dominant channel of influence. The existing literature on business-government very rarely acknowledges that each mode forms part of the environment of business- government relations for the other modes. Of the four modes, by far the least attention has been given to personalism. I find the association state to be weak because large numbers of small firms, weak trade unions and the sectoral configuration of Polish business present few incentives for the formation of business associations. The company state is usually associated with foreign and state enterprises. Foreign direct investment has been relatively modest in Poland. When state enterprises directly engage with the state, they tend to do so, not as businesses, but in alliance with trade unions. The party state is undermined by the high governmental turnover in Poland. It makes no sense for business to commit itself to parties, which are only temporary rulers. The soft state is found to be the dominant form of business-government relations. The sources of personalism are partially hidden behind complex personal histories. However, involvement in youth organisations is a powerful predictor of the level of personal connections to politicians amongst the business elite. Fundamental, and unlikely, changes to political competition and economic structure are necessary for Poland to become an association or a party state. In contrast, foreign ownership is increasing and state ownership is decreasing and transforming itself. Some of the conditions for personalism are also being undermined. In the future, instead of being a soft state, permeated by personal interests, Polish business government relations may move towards the company state.

This thesis investigates the relationship between the Capital Account Liberalization (CAL) process and changes in productivity in light of theoretical and empirical studies. It also presents a significant investigation into the nature and evolution of the capital control process, through a cross-country analysis and individual country analysis of Poland during the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. In addition, this thesis analyses the determinants of capital controls in the cross-countries analysis. Then, this thesis presents a profile of the Polish productivity distribution across manufacturing sectors, structure and level of the capital control process and sector characteristics, and an analysis of how these have changed over time. The empirical results are derived through an application of the best practices and techniques of productivity estimation on sector level data. Chapter 1 provides the description of key reforms in Poland and the structure of these thesis. Chapter 2, discusses strengths and weaknesses of various CAL measures and presents different trends of CAL measures. Chapter 3 employs selected CAL measures in a cross-county analysis, investigating the determinants of the CAL process. Chapter 4 analyses the trends of productivity in Poland. Chapter 5 analyses the CAL effect on manufacturing sector productivity by including sector financial dependence, sector investment and trade openness, and then compares this results with sectoral proxy for CAL measures. Chapter 6 concludes by discussing the results and provides a possible avenue for further research.

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