BOOK: Michal GALEDEK, National Tradition or Western Pattern? Concepts of New Administrative System for the Congress Kingdom of Poland (1814-1815) (Leiden-New York: Brill, 2020). ISBN 978-90-04-43268-0, 114.00 EUR

 

(Source: Brill)

Brill has published a new book on the constitutional Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Poland in 1814-1815.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the history of the development of Polish law and administration, the short period of the constitutional Duchy of Warsaw, and next of the Kingdom of Poland, was a special time. This is because it was the only moment in the 19th century when the Polish elites gained an opportunity to concentrate their efforts on the organization of the modern state machinery. This book presents the process of restructuring the administrative structures following the collapse of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw and before the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815. The author focuses on the approach of the Polish elites to the nascent modern state, increasing importance of administration within it and to the young Polish bureaucrats.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michał Gałędek, Ph.D. (2010), Professor of University of Gdańsk, Head of the Department of Legal History, Faculty of Law and Administration. In his research he focuses on the Polish administration, judiciary, codification, constitutionalism, and political thought at the beginning of 19th century and in the interwar period.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

   Introduction

  1 Concept of Administrative Thought

  2 Public Administration

  3 Construction of the Work

  4 Methodology

  5 Source Basis of and Literature

 

  1 Administration and Administrative Thought in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries 26

  1 The Specificity of the Administrative System under the Reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski

  2 Determinants of Administrative Development in Early 19th-century Europe

  3 Controversies Around the Administrative System of the Duchy of Warsaw

  4 Administrative Concepts in the Lithuanian Constitutional Drafts of 1811 and 1812

 

  2 The Course of Works on the Preparation of Administrative System Reforms

  1 Summer Breakthrough of 1814: establishment of the Civil Reform Committee and the Drafting of Constitutional Principles for the Kingdom of Poland

  2 The Course of Works in the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815)

  3 Works on the Provisional Organization of Central Administration in 1815

  4 New Plan of Works on Administration for the Second Half of 1815

  5 Works on the Constitution and on Organic Statutes

 

  3 The Central Government

  1 The Principle of Monarchical Sovereignty and the Polish Political Situation in the Years 1814 to 1815

  2 The Principle of Monarchical Sovereignty in the Course of Works on the Constitution

  3 Ministerial Accountability in the Course of Works on the Constitution

  4 Influence of the Seym ( sejm) on the Executive Power

  5 Namiestnik or a Collegial Government? The Problem of the Royal Deputy

  6Council of State

 

  4 Ministries

  1 Collegiality and One-man Management

  2 Organization of Ministries

  3 Ministry of Education

  4 Ministry of War

  5 Ministry of Justice

 

  5 Territorial Administration

  1 Points of Reference and Inspirations

  2 Collegiality

  3 Scope of Operations

  4 Influence of Voivodeship Councils on the Administration

  5 District Administration

  6 Municipal Administration

  7 Rural Administration

 

  6 Attitude Towards Bureaucrats

  1 Foundations of the Republican Traditionalist Concept

  2 The Moderate Concept of Maintaining Bureaucracy

 

   Conclusions

  1 Summary of the Course of Works on the Administrative System

  2 “Enlightened Liberalism” and the Issue of the Unity of Political and Administrative Thought

  3 A Summary Evaluation of the Concepts of Administrative System Reforms

 

   Sources

  1 Archival Sources (Manuscripts)

  2 Printed Sources

 

   Literature

 

   Index

 

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