Od społeczeństwa drugiego obiegu do społeczeństwa obywatelskiego

Taking as a starting point the concept of 'second society' understood as a system of informal rules organizing social life under real socialism, the author analyzes the processes of systemic transformation from the point of view their outcomes for civil society emergence. The first part of the article is devoted to the reconstruction of informal institutional structures which seem characteristic for the 'second society'. The second part deals with most crucial aspects for the formation of civil society as a system. These are processes undergoing in the sphere of economic interests, their political representations and in the sphere of symbolic representations. Key words: civil society; social system; social structure; second society.