Privatizing the Police-State: The Case of Poland
Written by Maria Los and Andrzej Zybertowicz
Forward by Gary T. Marx

This is the first book that documents and analyzes the paramount role of secret services in the decomposition of the communist system and the conversion of its elites into new capitalists. The surge of civil society in 1980s Poland prompted a parallel expansion of the police-state apparatus. The book traces the subsequent reconstitution and privatization of social, political and material resources of the police-state and shows how these covert operations shaped other, more visible aspects of the East/Central transformation.

A Note from the Authors:
"Since the publication of this book, the events in Poland and elsewhere have demonstrated the extraordinary influence and longevity of the power networks spawned by the communist police state apparatus and its eventual privatization. There is new evidence uncovered almost daily, whose interpretation would not be feasible without the conceptual and historical framework elaborated first in this book."

". . . a fascinating and troubling book. . . [the authors] raise important questions about the nature of privatized Poland."
Choice

"Privatizing the Police-State examines the privatization of the state control apparatus and the impact this has had on post-socialist property relations and on the possibilities for a full break with the authoritarian system. [The authors] use sources gained through years of reading and careful field research."
LOUISE SHELLEY, Demokratizatsiya

MARIA LOS is Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

ANDRZEJ ZYBERTOWICZ is Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of Sociology at the Nicholas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland.

Publishing House: Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2000
Hardcover book measuring 5.75" x 8.75"
292 pages, tables, index
English Language Version

All books are shipped through the U.S. Postal Office using Media Mail service. Typically delivery times are between 1 and 2 weeks. Please be advised, certain destinations in the U.S. may take longer.