Miejsce samorządu lokalnego w systemie Administracji terenowej w Polsce po 1945 roku. Zarys

In post–war Poland, there was a specific system of administration in which the structures of the general authority with its representative bodies and the fragmented, temporary, territorial self–government co-existed. The nature of the introduced system became particularly visible after 1950, alongside the strengthening of the ruling body and the realisation of the vision of the “unification of state power” in the field. In essence, local self–government was liquidated. This solution, as it was envisaged, was intended to guarantee the widespread democratisation of public life and the transparency of state governance. In practice, the non–democratic system of local administration ensured, amongst other things, a means of conducting the elections, limited the possibilities for decision–making by local councilors on matters relating to their districts and a lack of financial autonomy of the administration, which was the essence of self–government. The political and administrative supervision of local government bodies operating in the area of national councils was subordinated in an unnatural way to the ruling party. At the same time, the diffusion of the competences and activities of the general administration and national councils was not an isolated phenomenon, in practice causing the actions of individual members of the administration to be unclear, slow and ineffective.