Administrative Regionalism in Poland between 1926 and 1939

Abstract

In the period between 1926 and 1939 the notion of administrative regionalism in the authorities’ politics of Rzeczpospolita Polska of that time was more of less present and, simultaneously, it took many forms and tendencies. Its appearance was considerably influenced by the conditions of the administrative politics of the ruling party, which were characteristic for specific historical periods. And so between 1926 and 1930, and specifically between 1927 and 1930, the programme for the administrative regionalism adopted a more thorough shape. It became an official programme of the government and its aim was a large decentralisation of the governmental administration to the benefit of the territorial authorities and social organisations, which created a regionalist movement. Formally speaking, the administrative regionalism was still in force between 1930 and 1935, but in reality, by becoming more contradictory with the centralising politics of the colonel’s group, it perforce receded into the background. The regional committees were still operating, but they were increasingly marginalized - apart from the voivodeship of Wołyń. At the same time, the regional starost’s conferences appeared which gave rise to creating administrative subregions in the particular voivodeships. Between 1935 and 1939 the administrative regionalism disappeared completely, but the notion of regionalism did not since it re-emerged with time in the shape of an economic and administrative regionalism (technocratic). The economic policy of the vice-president Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski was its foundation, invoking the national interventionism, planned and expedient actions, realised in the chosen and often created ad hoc regions of the country, powered by the already existing administrative districts (voivodeships, counties and boroughs).