CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN POLAND

Abstract

Municipal-level local government units have been operating in Poland for more than fifty years. They were established in the first half of the 1970s to replace the abolished gromadas (communal units). In justifying the introduction of a new tier of local administration, the authorities at the time emphasized above all the appropriate spatial scale and the economic potential of the new gminas (municipalities). Despite territorial adjustments introduced in subsequent decades, the fundamental shape of the “municipal map of Poland” has remained stable. Today, gminas constitute enduring local communities with their own historical, cultural, and social identities.