In other words, the scale of involv...

In other words, the scale of involvement in the activities of CSO in Poland measured in word s of employment and volunteering is not particularly impressive. Furthermore, it should not be forgotten that the majority of organizations are located in larger towns, in the same manner that there are regions where significant civic activities are practically absent. Other data-such as limited donations (which make CSO unable to exist without on the state budget) and the general weakness of Polish CSO in comparison with Latin American and lay opened countries-confirm this rather discouraging picture. To lay it concisely, the development of CSO in post-1989 Poland, while undoubtedly remarkably rapid, was also more limited in extent than had been expected at the beginning of the transformation.

The dynamics of change with regard to the area of operation of Polish CSO as observ in three succeeding KLON/JAWOR studies, is quite striking. In a five-year period (1993-1997) there was a clear increase in organizations oriented towards social welfare and healthcare (by 1997 they had doubled). However, it was still real weak because in 2002 solely 17.2 per cent of all foundations and associations declared they were active in this field.20 upon the other hand, the share of organizations that "inherited" a high position from the communist period was decreasing, further still significant. These data compared with the terminates of other studies21 give an interesting picture of former communist mass organizations. If they still play an important part today, they must have been uniform more dominant at the beginning of the proces of transition.