Women in Transition: Institutional Change and Women's Situation in Poland

Background

Institutionalists, a group of economists whose roots might be traced to as early as the 19c., are united by shared believes even though seemingly they form a rather diverse group of scholars. The institutionalist concept of society is holistic in nature, in other words social reality is viewed as a unified whole. Institutionalists view society from a ‘processual’ perspective. This means they view social systems as dynamic, ever-developing entities, and are aware that all social activities occur in both historical time and an environmental uncertainty regarding the future. According to Wilber and Harrison (1978), “social reality is seen as more than a specified set of relations; it is the process of change inherent in a set of social institutions which we call an economic system” (p. 71). The Institutionalists’ view on society and the economy is systemic because they believe that parts of the system make up a coherent whole and can be understood only in terms of the whole (Wilber & Harrison, 1978, p. 71). It is also evolutionary because changes in the pattern of relations are seen as the very essence of social reality. Foldvary (1996) adds to this perspective that institutional economics is historically grounded, the economy exists in real, historic time, not in an abstract, timeless equilibrium. Every economic activity involves a process in which the economy moves constantly from a well-known past, through the present, and into an unknown future (W.C. Peterson, 1994, 29).