The Local Political Élites

Abstract

In this chapter we shall turn the focus from the study of social groups to the interaction of these groups in the local community. A fuller study of local People’s Councils will follow in another volume of this series which is being prepared at Birmingham University,¹ here we intend to indicate in an introductory way the extent to which social groupings participate in local affairs and also to describe the social characteristics of members of the local political élites. Before embarking on this, however, we need to describe briefly the institutional structure of local government in Poland.