Local Government Reform as State Building: What the Polish Case Says About “Decentralization”

Poland has become one of the more decentralized states in Europe. Local governments now control a third of all public expenditures. They have also delivered the goods modernizing the country’s infrastructure and restructuring its schools. This success cannot be attributed to widespread civic engagement because decentralization in Poland was clearly a “revolution from above.” Nor can it be attributed to the implementation of rules typically thought to enhance accountability in decentralized polities because Polish local governments do not finance themselves, and many of their responsibilities remain poorly defined. Instead, Poland’s success is due to an array of institutions designed to train, professionalize, discipline, and empower newly elected local elites. These institutions suggest that creating effective local governments may lie less in “getting the rules right” or in empowering citizens to participate in their own governance, than in institutions that encourage local governments to monitor themselves while embedding them in the regulatory structure of the state.