Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0294/02947.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 7KB | 140 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02947}
$Pretitle{362}
$Title{Poland
Glossary}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Harold D. Nelson}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{international
poland
countries
economic
ibrd
members
product
material
national
zlotys}
$Date{1984}
$Log{}
Country:     Poland
Book:        Poland, A Country Study
Author:      Harold D. Nelson
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984

Glossary

     Comecon-Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Sometimes cited as CMEA
or CEMA. Members in early 1983: Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, German
Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, the
Soviet Union, and Vietnam. Purpose is to further economic cooperation among
members (see Appendix B).

     Comintern-Communist International or Third International. Federation of
communist parties founded in Moscow in 1919; dissolved by Stalin in 1943 as
a conciliatory gesture to his Western allies.

     GDP-Gross domestic product. The total value of goods and services
produced within a country's borders during a fixed period, usually one year.
Obtained by adding the value contributed by each sector of the economy in
the form of compensation of employees, profits, and depreciation
(consumption of capital). Subsistence production is included and consists of
the imputed value of production by the farm family for its own use and the
imputed rental value of owner-occupied dwellings.

     GNP-Gross national product. GDP (q.v.) plus the income received from
abroad by residents, less payments remitted abroad to nonresidents.

     International Monetary Fund (IMF)-Established along with the World Bank
(q.v.) in 1945, the IMF is a specialized agency affiliated with the United
Nations and is responsible for stabilizing international exchange rates
and payments. The main business of the IMF is the provision of loans to its
members (including industrialized and developing countries) when they
experience balance of payments difficulties. These loans frequently carry
conditions that require substantial internal economic adjustments by the
recipients, most of whom are developing countries. In late 1982 the IMF had
146 members.

     national income (net material product)-A measurement of national
economic activity used by Poland and other Comecon states. Essentially,
national income is the sum of the net product contributed by certain sectors
of the economy that are classified as engaging in material production. Most
of net material product is contributed by industry, construction,
agriculture, and forestry. But also contributing are activities defined as
productive in transport and communications, trade, community services, and
"other branches of material production." Net material product differs
substantially from the gross national product (GNP-q.v.) measurements used
in the Western economies in that it excludes various service sectors that
are included in GNP. In addition, direct comparisons between national
economic performances as measured by net material product and GNP are
seriously restricted by pricings used in the former that, for political
and social reasons, are not necessarily true valuations.

     nomenklatura-literally, nomenclature. Refers to the practice whereby
the PZPR (q.v.) nominates or gives prior approval to persons (usually
PZPR members) appointed to key positions in government and other important,
e.g., economic and military, institutions. The practice makes political
reliability the primary criterion for appointment to the positions on the
list (the nomenklatura, strictly speaking).

     PZPR-Polish United Workers' Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza).
The communist party in Poland, formed in German-occupied Poland during
World War II as the Polish Workers' Party. It moved to Poland with
advancing Soviet troops and secured total political power during early
postwar years; merged with the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia
Socjalistyczna) in 1948 to become the PZPR.

     Ruthenia-Variant of the Ukrainian Russ (or Russia). Term applied
historically to East Slavic lands of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that
included western Ukraine and part of Byelorussia (White Ruthenia); later
restricted to eastern Galicia.

     socialism and socialist-In common with the other states that Western
writers usually refer to as communist, Poland officially describes itself
as socialist and its economic system as socialism and claims that it is
working toward communism, which Lenin defined as a higher stage of
socialism. Polish socialism bears scant resemblance to the democratic
socialism of, for example, Scandinavian countries.

     voivodship (wojewodzstwo; pl. wojewodzstwa)-Largest unit of local Polish
government, sometimes referred to in English as province. Before 1975 the
next lower level of local government was the powiat (pl, powiaty), which
was equivalent to a district or country; the lowest level was the gromada
(pl., gromady), or village. Since 1975 the only governmental level below
the voivodship has been the gmina (pl., gminy), or commune.

     Warsaw Pact-Political and military alliance founded in 1955 in response
to the inclusion of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In early 1983 members were
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the
Soviet Union. Command and staff headquarters located in Lvov, Soviet Union
(see Appendix C).

     World Bank-Informal name used to designate a group of three affiliated
international institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), and the
International Finance Corporation (IFC). The IBRD, established in 1945, has
the primary purpose of providing loans to developing countries for
productive projects. The IDA, a legally separate loan fund but administered
by the staff of the IBRD, was set up in 1960 to furnish credits to the
poorest developing countries on much easier terms than those of conventional
IBRD loans. The IFC, founded in 1956, supplements the activities of the IBRD
through loans and assistance designed specifically to encourage the growth
of productive private enterprises in the less developed countries. The
president and certain senior officers of the IBRD hold the same positions in
the IFC. The three institutions are owned by the governments of the
countries that subscribe their capital. In 1982 the IBRD had over 140
members, the IDA had 130, and the IFC over 120. To participate in the World
Bank group, member states must first belong to the International Monetary
Fund (IMF-q.v.).

     zloty-Basic unit of Polish currency (nonconvertible), divided into 100
groszy.p Under the officially used exchange rate through 1970,
US $1 equaled 24 zlotys; after devaluation by the United States in 1971-73
the rate was set at 20 zlotys to US $1. By 1979 the rate per US $1 had
increased to 30 zlotys, and to 35 zlotys in late 1981.
A new base rate of 80 zlotys was then introduced; the rate fluctuated
during 1982, reaching 86 zlotys to US $1 near the end of the year.