The contemporary development of socialist economy is featured not only by high dynamics, but also by essential structural and qualitative changes. The economic policy and the socialist planning in particular tendtowards optimalization of economic growth, then to engage for its proper directions, structure and rythmicality. The every year growing national product ought to be, as it is possible, most suitable and useful for implementation of threefold objective: 1° the better satisfaction with the necessities of population, 2° the quicker modernization of the national economy, and 3° the effective development of the foreign trade as well as the international cooperation.The superiority of a set of social criteria is becoming the general assumption of economic policy. A vision of the future human being and the mature society is determining prospective objectives and aims of the development as well is indicating ways and means for their realization by economic policy.The economic growth is not objective by itself, but has to serve for a comprehensive social advancement. At the same time the factors of social advancement advantageously impact the labour productivity and otherwisethey perform a role of additional stimulatives of the economic growth.The objectives of social advancement should be realized gradually basing on staging patterns of systematic raise of the living standards of the population. A hierarchy and a sequence of satisfaction with the both individual and collective necessities demand a skillful application of the criteria of the economic and social choice. We are using here the principle of social and economic rationality.Hence the factors of social advancement, involving the scientific and technical progress, belang to the fundumatel elements of the present economic and social policy. At the same time objectives and means of modern economic and social advancement are here strictly interlaced.

In its formative period the state welds together groups of kindred language, religion and customs. A nation bereft of a state structure has a small prospect of survival, since it is weaker than nations which possess their own apparatus of force. The former is constantly endangered and is often helpless before the latter. The struggle for statehood is hence the most conscious expression of the effort to maintain national distinctness. Moreover, a nation deprived of statehood enjoys small prestige among its own group members, nor can it create an image which arouses the respect of other nations.A striking phenomenon in the investigation of the state and the nation is the parallelism in the condition of their origin. The nation thus arises as a result of an extended processes of integration; white the consolidating nature of national awareness makes it analogue of the state organization as a universal organization. It is possible to distinguish three types of nation-building processes: a) within the framework of native state organization which arises directly as a result of an external threat, b) within the bouddaries of farmer colonies which are accepted as the national state borders, c) the shaping of national entities of the foundation of federated forms of the state.An analysis of the different variants of historica[ experience suggests certain general propositions: 1. The emergence of the state, or at least of a state organism, as a rule precedes the formation of the nation; 2. because of its general all-embracing character the state organization is the decisive factor of the nation-building process.The author deals also with the problem of the federal state and the national question. The different types of federations influence the national problem in different ways.

1. In the circumstances of the overgrowth signs the scientific-technical revolution the following events in essential way are influencing the activities of public administration: 1° the establishing, under thepressure of the technical progress and specialization, of the big economic units; 2° the acceleration of the processus of urbanization; 3° the increasing threat of the biological environment and the appearance of newpossibilities for its protection; and 4° the leveling of differences between the living standards of the population in town and in countryside. In that situation the socialist state has first of all to develop its organizationalfunctions. 2. The organizational functions of the socialist state are implemenied above all by the supreme and local representative organs of the state authority and by the subordinated to them organs of the state administration. In the result of this organizational activity the scope of civic rights is extending. The state apparatus therefore is responsible for calling into being and for activities of the public institutions and facilities being used by the citizens at their choice. The regulating role (dirigism) of the state has hence respect more to these public institutions and facilities, and it is addressed more seldom directly to the citizens. That takes place especially in the sphere of the administration of national economy, the organization of technical public services as well as the services rendering administration. 3. The social and economic assumptions of the socialist system are putting into effect by the organizational activities of the state apparatus. One of the fundamental features of this system is to gain the conscioussupport of the overwhelming majority of the society for actions of the socialist state and to consolidate this support. Such support is possible to reach only by the development of the democratic principles of thestate activities. The democratic institutions are established by the law, and the law is one of instruments of the realization of the political tasks of the socialist society being organized into the state. The state apparatus' function is to embody in action the tasks established by the law. And this therefore makes the role of the state apparatus very important as welt as provides to the necessity of permanent improvement of this apparatus. 4. The social and economic plans create the substantial basis for the state administration activities. In the both national and local plans, voted by representative organs of the state authority, there are determined theeconomic and social tasks as welt as the aims concerning in advancement of the living standards of the population. In the state enterprises plans are voted by the organs of the workers' self-government. The principles of socialist democracy and democratic centralism are reflected in the procedure of planning. 5. The processus of the administration in the contemporary state becomes more and more complicated. This processus demands an improvement of th social nature, but not of the technocratic one. And that improvement, realized in conformity with the social necessities, is safeguarded by the fact that the state machinery in the socialist country is inspired and vivified by the political leadership of the working class' party.

The interrelation between the development of political institutions and the processes of scientific-technical revolution is twofold. On the one hand, there must exist the political preconditions of the rapid change in science and technology. On the other hand, the processes of rapid scientific and technical change produce important consequences in the politica life.From the point of view of the economic structure of the country, Poland has reached the threshold of scientific-technical revolution; it now depends on the political conditions whether the country wilt be able to achieve the stage of high technological development in reasonably short time.Three changes in the functioning of political institutions are directly related to the processes of scientific-technical revolution: they are changes in the system of management on all levels of authority, changes in the circulation of informations and development of autonomic structures of decision-making. Indirectly, however, other changes in the system of political institutions influence the processes of scientific and technological change. Two variants of future developments of the political institutions are discussed in this context: that of a rationalized centralism and the one of democratic self-management. The author expresses the opinion thatboth these variants would constitute conditions for rapid scientific and technological transformations but he favours the strategy of combining the strong elements of both and eliminating their weaknesses.In the second part of the paper, the author discusses the consequences of scientific-technological revolution for the political institutions. Five major factors could be hypothetically identified: 1° changes in classstructure and social stratification, particularly in the direction of increased role of the professional stratum and the increase of educational level of the working class; 2° further political integration of the nation; 3° changesin the culture of work, increase of social discipline, and higher assessment of collective and individual efficacy of the Poles; 4° achievement of the higher standard of living and on the basis of it leveling of economicinequalities; 5° increase of the amount of leisure time. All these changes wilt result in the formation of better and more harmonious society, which in its turn wilt make it both possible and necessary to considerablyincrease the scope of democratic self-management in all spheres of sociopolitical life. Potential restraints to this process may result from the inertia of old political institutions and/or from technocratic tendenciesamong some segments of the aparatus. Neither, however, is likely to become strong enough to stop the processes of democratic self-management. The main changes in the direction of greater self-management will include: 1° development of various forms of direct democracy on local levels; 2° development of organizations which represent interests of varioussegments of the society; 3° bettering of the representative institutions (Parliament and local councils); 4° further differentiation between administrative and political authorities and further democratization of the latter; 5° deepening of the leading role of the Communist party combined with development of its internal democracy.