Poland's Enterprise Environment - A Polish View
The paper briefly presents environment for business in Poland as of the end of the year 2005. A few comments, however, on its evolution in the course of the transition period are also made. The paper broaches administrative, legal and financial requirements to start and run business activities by both natural and legal persons. In addition, it presents government support schemes for investors. A brief description of the scope of the grey economy and corruption completes the picture of the business environment. The topic has been approached from the foreign investors perspective. Although foreign in-vestors are subject to the same laws as domestic (Polish) ones, in a limited number of cases they are treated differently than the latter. These cases, and specifically land purchase and employment of foreign citizens, are reviewed.
Barriers to Entry and their Impact on Private Sector Growth in Poland
At the beginning of transition Poland was already far ahead of other former socialist countries with regard to the role of the private sector in the economy. For example, Polish farmers were never deprived of their land, as it was the rule in other countries under the communist regime.1 With 4 million people self-employed and employed in private farms Poland was unique amongst countries embarking on the road from a “planned” to a market economy. Outside agriculture, a further 1.8 million people worked in private companies, constituting 13.3% of employment in non-agricultural enterprises.
The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy
In this newly revised edition of his widely acclaimed work, Peter Burke presents a social and cultural history of the Italian Renaissance. He discusses the social and political institutions that existed in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and he analyzes the ways of thinking and seeing that characterized this period of extraordinary artistic creativity. Developing a distinctive approach, the author is concerned not only with the finished works of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and others, but also with the social background, patterns of recruitment, and means of subsistence of this "cultural elite." He thus makes a major contribution both to our understanding of the Italian Renaissance and to our comprehension of the complex relations between culture and society. An excellent social history of the lives and culture of the artists and artisans which made it possible for the arts to flourish.