Habersack, Sabine - Puşcaş, Vasile - Ciubotă, Viorel (szerk.): Democraţia in Europa centrală şi de Sud-Est - Aspiraţie şi realitate (Secolele XIX-XX) (Satu Mare, 2001)
Jan Wendt: Territorialization of Authority in Poland
Jan Wendt property and financial resources. It was and, to some degree, still is the attempt top build a civic state. Its aim was to strengthen Polish state both structurally and socially. Finally, it was necessary to carry three other reforms out: health care, education and retirement pension system reforms which were meant to improve functioning of the county also in these fields. Municipal reform was to enable easier adjustment of territorial organisation of the county and structures of territorial self governing to the standards of European union might facilitate international regional collaboration. At presence, after one year has elapsed, it is difficult to evaluate results of the reform, although there is rationale to think that not all of its goals, such as reducing the number of officials, increasing independence of communes or shifting the competence of voivod on to the district level, have been reached. It is apparently visible, in turn, that in a few others spheres the municipal reform has not been carried out according to its theoretical foundations. The most important problems connected with realisation of the reform are of two categories. To the first belongs specific to the local elite way of governing, affected by the territorialization process, corruption and undue salaries of councillors and municipal officials. The second one is associated with the financial of self governments insufficient to run property local policy and fulfil statutory tasks, with little range of introduced changes and transferring only small part of the real power on to municipal structures, with the consolidating of „red-tape” lobby in the state and the lack of apolitical official staff. As it has been said, the 1st problem the municipal reform poses is the way of governing by local elites. In the process of démocratisation of civic life and forming self government at the commune, district and province level, the power, by means of democratic election, with the 46% attendance was given to the whole army of people. At present, we have 63 765 councillors in Poland , in 16 provincial governments - 855 councillors, in 373 districts councils - 10 290 councillors, and in 2489 rural and urban communes - 52 620 councillors. The problem of the power territorialization is the alloy of issues such as position of local party elites, misunderstanding of the aim of holding the office (power), strengthening the worst patterns of the rule not for the welfare of the society but in the party’s interest - and even more often in the private one along. No doubt, of course , that among thousands of councillors there is the whole army of those devoted to their community, who make decision keeping in mind the benefit of their small motherland and whose work and hardships will be probably never appreciated. 284
