A Polish model of the intelligence service reform in 1990

The debate about the shape of the future secret services, which became increasingly heated at the turn of 1989 and 1990 in the Polish Parliament and in the media, revealed a major number of experts, journalists and politicians of various backgrounds who were advocates of radical reforms. The differences among them consisted in the election of one of the two possible ways of introducing the reforms: the “zero option” or “continuation” of the hitherto applied solutions through their adaptation for the needs of the democratic state. However, it turns out that there were many other possible solutions. The “zero option” and “continuation” constituted two contradictory types between which there existed many more gradual forms. Their position was determined by such factors as: “the manner of breaking away with communism”, the level of the government’s experience and knowledge about the reform of the secret service, the involvement of the governing group in this field. Having analyzed all the factors, it becomes possible to sort out the solutions in terms of their organizational structure, their position in the structure of the state authorities, methods, change of the personnel (including the executive staff). The aim of this work is to present the solutions applied in Poland in 1989 in relation to the factors which determined them.