Digitalisation and the Varieties of Capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland

This article aims to juxtapose the conclusions from the debates on the varieties of capitalism in Poland, in particular dependent market economy and patchwork capitalism, with the discussion on the evolution of digital platforms and, more broadly, the digitalisation of Polish society and economy. The development of the institutional architecture of the economy in the context of digitalisation in Poland since the late 1980s is reconstructed, considering three major phases in the country’s history. These are respectively: (1) the period of economic and political transformation of the post-socialist system until Poland’s accession to the EU; (2) the phase of the global economic crisis caused by the financial crisis in 2008; (3) the period of polycrisis, starting from 2015, including the pandemic crisis and lasting until 2023 (the post-Covid-19 pandemic era). Based on the examination of the Polish case, we conclude that the growing dependence of the state on big tech transnational companies which provide critical infrastructure for key public services might present a danger to the digital sovereignty of the country.