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

people employed in municipal administration, which gave an absolute number of 116 000 workers. In the city office of Warsaw over 4 years the employment increase by 51%, giving 5326 posts. For obvious reason expanding „red-tape” network will tend to retain it decision-making competencies, which will lead to cumulating of power in structures of governmental administration.

Summing up the above arguments, municipal reform which was to lead to political decentralisation of the country and as effect of create new local centres of municipal authorities is for the time being non-existing. It was conditioned by a few important factors. On the one hand, the outcome we see is the result of the way of gaining, performing and maintaining power by politician of every group and at every level of authority. On the second hand, the resistance of central administration busy to retain its position, range of competencies and privileges, led to degeneration of decentralisation process, in which the place of already existing central structures were not replaced by municipal stmctures, but on the contrary a new office of special administrations appeared which by organising its own hierarchical stmctures escapes the control of governmental as well as municipal stmctures, using the slogans of care of over all citizens, especially when municipality participation is small.

This example helps understand that when poorly financed, local authorities must exercise policy conformable to the local elites, for thanks to them some extra founds can inflow from the central budget. Differentiation of local authorities is dependent on the level of hierarchy at which it functions, but also on income which is determine by political decisions to great extent.

Territorialization of Authority in Poland

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