Cooperation, Culture and Shared Values – Poland and Its Neighbourhood

Abstract

The aim of the paper is the idea of cooperation as an undervalued element of the system of market economy. The system has been dominated by competition despite the wishes of its founding father, Adam Smith. Several other authors have also pointed to the fact and proposed to focus more on cooperation in order to keep economy in balance with society. Excessive reliance on the competition hurt people’s relationships and undermined their place in the economic system. The significance of cooperation rises when combined with the idea of culture and shared values. Chosen methods of assessing values as related to economic development are mentioned. The World Values Survey (WVS) results are used to assess the proximity of the values of the neighbouring countries of Poland. Despite changes in the composition of the values in Poland and the countries, the analysis shows that a great deal of these values are common which may potentially enhance potential international cooperation among these countries.