Ideology in a Socialist State describes the changes in the ideology of Poland's rulers from the October events of 1956 to the lifting of martial law in 1983. Ideology has been one of the most debated and equivocal concepts in social science, yet this is one of the first attempts to examine it in a systematic, longitudinal and empirical way.

This puts the tumultuous Polish events of 1981 3 into historical perspective and focuses on the response of the party leadership to the challenge of Solidarity, and of martial law.