Niemiecka samorządność terytorialna. Bilans pozjednoczeniowego trzydziestolecia przemian ustrojowo-strukturalnych
German local government. Assesment of 30 years of the post-unification systemic-structural transformations

Summary/Abstract: Local government is one of the most important institutions of a democratic rule of law in Germany. Its position and role was basically shaped immediately after the end of World War II. The purpose of this article is anattempt to present and evaluate the systemic and structural changesthat have taken place in German local government within 30 yearsof the post-unification period.The hypothesis of this study is as follows: The political and structural changes of German local government in the last 30 year shave been directed towards making the activities of its bodies and institutions more effective as well as strengthening and deepening democracy, influencing the authorities in power, rather than towards forming a unified law and model of local government.The issue of the political and structural transformation of the German local government can be analyzed from the point of view of the political sciences, legal sciences, historical sciences and geographical sciences. This is made possible by the multidimensional and diverse matter of this issue. Therefore, the methods used in the course of the present study were those appropriate to the historical sciences, the statistical method, the method of system analysis, the institutional and legal method, the decision-making method and the deductive method, as well as research techniques such as the examination of documents, analysis and criticism of the existing literature of the subject and secondary analysis of the results of research conducted by other authors.It was found in the course of the study that the political and structural transformations of the German local government which took place as a resultof non-unified reforms did not lead to the creation of a uniform local government legislation for the whole country, despite the similarity of many legal solutions. These changes served the purpose of a more effective management of various forms of territorial self-government, the development of democracy and a greate rinfluence of citizens on public authorities.

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