The market model of Polish economic insurance in agriculture in the period of preparations for joining the EU (1990–2004)

Abstrakt

The market economy model that has functioned in Poland for over thirty years has been experiencing – apart from its undisputed achievements – various types of crises. Since the turn of the 20th century, the world economy, entering the stage of a new post-industrial revolution, has been facing numerous socio-economic instabilities. Several scholars, including Nobel Prize winners, predict the demise of capitalism. The world today is affected by the ever-deepening economic problems, social, political and religious crises, poverty and famine, as well as natural disasters. The latter significantly affect the agricultural economies of the majority of countries worldwide. The models of securing human activity and material effects of risk – primarily the insurance methods – that have been so far used quite effectively in the world economy, are no longer sufficient. Within the system of neoliberal economy, the contemporary insurance model puts the principle of constant profit above the social aspects of insurance activity. The system of contractual economic insurance introduced in Poland and implemented here over thirty years ago turned out to be unsatisfactory both for the agricultural sector, the populations of rural areas and for the national economy. This paper consists of two articles: the first one covers the period of the early years of political and insurance system transformation, until the beginning of the participation of the Polish agricultural market in the system of the European Union, i.e. until mid-2004; the second one addresses the period when the Polish agricultural market has functioned within the EU structures. It also deals with the problem of perspectives and directions of the development of the insurance system for Polish agriculture and the populations of the rural areas, aimed at addressing the protective expectations by insurance methods.