The Role of General State Administration in Strengthening the Authoritarian System in the Late Years of the Second Polish Republic

This article endeavours to examine the transformations within the general state administration of Poland following 1935. The initiatives undertaken during this period were a response to the reshaping of the administration after the May Coup and the tumultuous, ad hoc measures of the Great Depression period. With an improved economic landscape, there emerged a more deliberate approach to modernisation, the reassessment of personnel and its augmentation. Two figures within the Ministry of the Interior, Władysław Raczkiewicz and Sławoj Składkowski, played pivotal roles in guiding these reforms. Consequently, the post-1935 period witnessed an acceleration in the modernisation of bureaucratic processes, as well as endeavours to modernise administrative techniques within local governance. These developments were accompanied by heightened societal pressures exerted by the administrative system. Evidence of such pressures included electoral fraud, escalating censorship, and the imposition of financial penalties to coerce ‘voluntary’ activities from the public. Additionally, there was mounting pressure from military entities, which expected the state administration to intensify efforts for national defence. These activities constituted significant facets of state administrative functions in the waning years of the Second Polish Republic, albeit without forsaking the routine operations of office.