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The aim of this chapter is to compare the content of two essays: Oskar Lange's 1931 ‘Crisis of Socialism’ and Tadeusz Kowalik's 1996 ‘August – the Bourgeois Revolution of the Epigones’ in order to try to determine the extent to which Lange's paper influenced Kowalik's ideas. We find that Lange's article was possibly Kowalik's only source of theoretical knowledge about bourgeois revolutions and their course when he wrote his 1996 piece. What probably struck Kowalik most in ‘Crisis of Socialism’ in the context of Polish transformations was the similarity (real or apparent) between the situation in Poland in 1905–1918 and that in 1980–1989 (or even 1980–1992), that is, the possibility of constructing a ‘bourgeois class state’ only through a workers revolution immediately preceding such a construction. On the basis of this analogy, in ‘August…’ Kowalik, as we argue, introduced a novelty into his reflections: he fortified his earlier, more lax analyses with the concept of ‘bourgeois revolution.’

This chapter aims at introducing the key themes in two entries written by Tadeusz Kowalik for the Encyclopaedia Einaudi. These two long essays represent further developments of Kowalik's interpretation of the nature of capital and the cause and consequences of cyclical developments in capitalism. While the chapter is divided into two sections corresponding to the two entries, at the same time it tries to highlight the structural method of the author for which the categories of capital and crisis are historically, economically and politically entangled.

For almost half a decade, after World War II, capitalism and socialism coexisted on the European continent. Some believed that these systems would converge, with state intervention stabilising capitalism in the west and socialism became more democratic in the east. Michał Kalecki, in his last published article, co-written with Tadeusz Kowalik, wrote about how governments had implemented a crucial reform in the developed capitalist economies. State investment had filled the demand gap, which could potentially result in the long-term mitigation of capitalism's slumps and crises. Tadeusz Kowalik later extended this notion of the crucial reform, to the troubled socialist systems in Eastern Europe during the 1980s. He argued that previous economic reforms had failed in the socialist countries as they had not been accompanied by sufficient democratic political reforms, which needed to be extended in order to fully revitalise the socialist economies. Ultimately the proposals for a crucial reform of capitalism and socialism were not realised and these systems did not converge economically or politically. This chapter examines the theses of Kalecki and Kowalik within the historical and intellectual tradition of Polish socialist and Marxist thought.

The paper surveys selected standpoints in the Polish humanities that are visibly critical toward neoliberal assumptions and claims of economics. The resources used in the text are: Andrzej Szahaj’s philosophical postulates and assertions; Tadeusz Kowalik’s view; criticism and postulates of social economics articulated by the quarterly magazine Nowy Obywatel (The New Citizen). The purpose of this paper is to construct a possibly cohesive picture of this type of criticism by indicating important similarities between the approaches mentioned above, its strongest arguments, philosophical premises and political inclinations.

A conceptual synthesis and interpretation of theoretical standpoints and its philosophical premises, a comparative analysis of the text/content of the magazine (The New Citizen).

Each of the three standpoints discussed in the paper proves to be an interesting example of social economics. It is also symptomatic that they share a similar, critical attitude toward the way in which the transformation of the Polish economy from a socialist to a capitalist system had been carried out. The transformation is thereby interpreted as a process that is not accomplished at all from the point of view of the ideals of social justice and integrity.

The popularization of Polish normative views of economics taking into account the problem of social justice, and the possible transformation of the way in which economic problems are publicly understood in Poland.

The discussion of non-standard interpretations of Polish transformation and its effects that undermine and challenge neoliberal ideology in economics.

This paper aims to select parameters such as temperature thermal stability and temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) for Ni–P resistive alloys obtained by electroless metallization. Ni–P alloys are used in the manufacture of precision resistors characterized by TCR in the range of ± 10 ppm/K. The correlation of the technological parameters with the electrical properties of resistors enables the accurate prediction of the TCR resistors.

The Ni–P layers were obtained by a continuous process at about 373 K in a solution with the acidity of pH = 2 and then dried for two hours at 393 K. Subsequently, the Ni–P layer was stabilized for two hours in the temperature range of 453-533 K. Resistance was measured with an accuracy of 1 mΩ. TCR was determined with an accuracy of 1 ppm/K in the temperature range 298-398 K. In the next stage of the investigation, the increase in TCR of the Ni–P alloy was correlated with the increase in stabilization temperature. Scanning electron microscope images of the alloy surface were studied to assess grain sizes and to relate the average grain size with TCR values of resistive alloys. The X-ray diffraction analysis was performed to determine the crystallization temperature of Ni–P alloy.

The conducted investigation showed that the TCR increase in alloy is a linear function of stabilization temperature in the temperature range in which transition from amorphous phase to crystalline phases did not occur. TCR increase in Ni–P alloy arises from the increase of average size of grains resulting in decrease of scattering of electrons on grain boundaries. The analysis of alloy composition in chosen fragments of surface shows inhomogeneity growing with decreasing analyzed surface dimensions which proves that, before the stabilization, the structural arrangement of alloy is inconsiderable.

The obtained results are the first attempt to relate the morphology of surface with TCR of alloy and demonstration of linear dependence between an increase in TCR of amorphic Ni–P alloy and stabilization temperature of resistive layer. Such correlations are not described in available literature.

Rosa Luxemburg is not an under-consumptionist stressing the tendency to stagnation, it is rather an under-investment perspective: the effective demand crisis results from the disequilibria determined by a vibrant capitalist accumulation, and stems from production rather than circulation. To show this, the chapter deals with three dimensions of Rosa Luxemburg's economic thought. First, how Luxemburg's approach in her 1913 book is related with some of her prior writings, especially Social Reform or Revolution? and the Introduction to Political Economy. Second, the re-reading that Luxemburg herself provided of her own argument in terms of a macro-monetary circuit model like the one we read in her Anti-Critique. Third and last, in which sense Marx's monetary labour theory of value was for her the essential starting point, which cannot be just set aside. This last point will be preceded by a détour, the critical consideration of some key papers by Kalecki on capitalism and reform, including his late paper with Kowalik on the ‘crucial reform’. The chapter concludes with some hints pointing towards an interpretation of capitalism and its recurring crises where exploitation and effective demand are both essential in accounting for the ascent and collapses of different forms of capitalism itself.

In The Accumulation of Capital (2015a), Rosa Luxemburg emphasises the importance of demand realisation in Marx's economics. First, by studying the history of political economy a refutation is provided of the suggested harmony between production and consumption (what came to be called Say's Law) first proposed by Say and J. Mill. Second, in her analysis of Marx's reproduction schemes, Luxemburg identifies the key role of demand constraints, set in the circulation of money. Central to this analysis is how the specific peculiarities of capitalism, such as constraints on the demand for commodities by wage labour, serve to intensify problems associated with Say's Law. The main purpose of this chapter is to consider how a refutation of Say's Law can be established in Luxemburg's treatment of the reproduction schemes that featured in Polish discussions of economic reproduction.

This analysis builds on the examination of Say's Law provided by Trigg (2020) under the confines of simple commodity circulation. Luxemburg's simple reproduction scheme provides a useful starting point for extending this refutation to the arena of capitalism. Core to this approach is how commodity money undergoes wear and tear as money circulates: a phenomenon that is considered by Luxemburg introducing a new department of production for the money commodity. By developing this system, and drawing on Marx's writings in Theories of Surplus Value, part 2 (Marx, 1968), the analysis will provide a systematic exploration of Marx's inevitability theory of crises under capitalism, as an extension of the more established possibility theory of crises under simple circulation.

This paper aims to present the possibility of computer-aided technology of chemical metallization for the production of electrodes and resistors based on Ni-P and Ni-Cu-P layers.

Based on the calculated parameters of the process, test structures were made on an alumina substrate using the selective metallization method. Dependences of the surface resistance on the metallization time were made. These dependencies take into account the comparison of the calculations with the performed experiment.

The author created a convenient and easy-to-use tool for calculating basic Ni-P and Ni-Cu-P layer parameters, namely, surface resistance and temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of test resistor, based on chemical metallization parameters. The values are calculated for a given level of surface resistance of Ni-P and Ni-Cu-P layer and defined required range of changes of TCR of test resistor. The calculations are possible for surface resistance values in the range of 0.4 Ohm/square ÷ 2.5 Ohm/square. As a result of the experiment, surface resistances were obtained that practically coincide with the calculations made with the use of the program created by the authors. The quality of the structures made is very good.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper presents a new, unpublished method of manufacturing electrodes (resistors) on silicon, Al₂O₃ and low temperature co-fired ceramic substrates based on the authors developed computer program.

Industrial feudalism is a socioeconomic formation that the Polish Marxists Ludwik Krzywicki and Oskar Lange associated with monopoly finance capital. Industrial feudalism arises in a socially static capitalism where mobility between hierarchically defined social strata is restricted. Krzywicki's account predates Hilferding's Finance Capital and outlines the functioning of the capital market-based finance capital that has become more common in capitalism. Seemingly unaware of Krzywicki's pioneering articles, Oskar Lange then presented his own account of monopoly finance capital in the United States with similar social consequences in the early 1940s with state support for monopolies. Krzywicki's work on monopoly finance capital was discovered in the 1950s by Tadeusz Kowalik.

The paper aims to present a research on the impact of the stabilization process of a thin metallic layer (Ni-P) produced on a ceramic surface (Al₂O₃) by means of electroless metallization on its electric parameters and structure. On the basis of the research conducted, the existence of a relationship between resistance (R) and the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the test structure with a Ni-P alloy-based layer and the temperature of stabilization was proposed.

Metallic Ni-P layers were deposited on sensitized and activated substrates. Metallization was conducted in an aqueous solution containing two primary ingredients: sodium hypophosphite and nickel chloride. The concentration of both ingredients was (50-70) g/dm³. The process lasted 60 min, and the metallization bath pH was kept at 2.1-2.2, whereas the temperature was maintained at 363 K. The thermal stabilization process was conducted in different temperatures between 453 and 623 K. After the technological processes, the resistance and TCR of the test structures were measured with a micro ohmmeter. The composition and the morphology of the resistive layer of the structures examined was also determined.

The dependence of the resistance on the temperature of the stabilization process for the temperature range 553 to 623 K was described using mathematical relationships. The TCR of test resistors at the same thermal stabilization temperature range was also described using a mathematical equation. The measurements show that the resistive layer contains 82.01 at.% of nickel (Ni) and 17.99 at.% of phosphorus (P).

The results associate a surface morphology Ni-P alloy with the resistance and TCR according to temperature stabilization. The paper presents mathematical relationships that have not been described in the literature available.