Changes in Informal Institutions in Poland and Transition Countries

The research paper presents institutional systems of economies in the following transforming countries: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. The article aims at indicating the changes which have taken place in informal institutions' structures since the early nineties. It also attempts to determine how informal institutions are supporting formal institutions. Heading towards building new institutional systems, transforming countries face a barrier of slowly evolving informal institutions. A mismatch between institutional structures can be noticed in transforming countries. Low level of trust in people, resistance to new ideas, strong attachment to traditional behavioural patterns and excessive role of “connections”, relatively low level of self-expression, high expec-tations towards the state and its welfare functions, and low social activity within the society, can be observed. The institutional changes in informal components have been presented using data from World Values Survey, CEPII and G.Hofstede research.