In the course of several decades the People’s Republic of Poland witnessed a number of attempts at reforming the economic system and undertaken, as a rule, upon the occasions of grave political crises and social revolts. Part of those reform programmes was created by milieus independent of the authorities or at the very least engaged in efforts to preserve the greatest possible autonomy. The presented text analyses reform programmes proposed after the revolt of 1956 and at the time of the first Solidarity movement (1980–1981). While analysing the texts of the planned economic solutions the authors demonstrated that the changes recommended by circles not connected with the communist authorities (or, as in 1956, endeavouring to preserve a cer...