Getting the Timing Right in Poland's Transformation, by Georges Mink The Polish « miracle », as A. Michnik calls it, or « mystery », the term favoured by C. Milosz, has surprised us once again. Against ail logic, an entire nation is giving full support to a government policy which has lowered the standard of living 20 per cent, created unemployment for several hundreds of thousands, and intensified the pace of working life. Unlike other former satellites of the USSR, the présent government enjoys a comfortably stable political climate for the implementation of an economie transformation which has been in operation since 1st January 1990. But this situation has only come about after long and painful years of trial and error. The present cons...