Imitating Capitalism and Democracy at a Distance. Identifying with Images in the Polish Transition

This paper examines the imitation of models in the Polish transition. The reconstruction of an economic and political order in 1989 has widely been interpreted as the imitation of capitalism and democracy. This paper conceives of imitation as aiming to overcome the distance to a desired model. By applying Bruno Latour's concept of action at a distance, it is argued that institutions and practices of capitalism and democracy were not the principal models of imitation in the Polish transition.