Reformy terenowego aparatu władzy i administracji. Od likwidacji samorządu do prób jego odbudowy

Abstract

The Polish People’s Republic can be divided into five basic stages of rebuilding the system of local government and administration, for which the boundary years were 1944, 1950, 1958, 1972 and 1983. The reforms carried out then (mainly for political reasons) significantly modified the earlier systemic solutions. Changes of 1950 were a regression in relation to prior solutions from the years 1944–1950; and all subsequent reforms after 1958 were an attempt to modernize and seek more effective institutions and mechanisms of the system. The then functioning system of national councils guaranteed monopoly of the state in the implementation of public tasks, and simultaneously eliminated or marginalized the importance of local government. During the whole period of the Polish People’s Republic, the role of national councils was dominated by the function of transfer of tasks from the central to the local level. The hierarchical system of the councils, with an officially imposed structure, strictly subordinated to the party centers and to the central administrative and economic apparatus, proved to be inefficient. Despite the constant changes for its modernization, the local system was not capable of empowerment of local communities. The false concept of unity of all public interest, resulting from ideological imponderables, determined the inefficiency of the council system. A conflict, which could not be overcome, was rooted in the identification of the general social interest and the local interests. General evaluation of the reform turned out to be negative. The general regulations introduced were a setback in comparison with the pre-war solutions and did not withstand competition with the classical systems of local government then functioning in Western democracies.