Limiting the term of office in local government – a perspective of rural municipalities in the Łódź voivodeship

The paper analyses the term limit that the 2018 amendment introduced to the Electoral Code. By limiting the number of terms to two, it is one of the critical institutional changes facing local government in Poland today. The consequences of this change remain uncertain and may impact future local government structures. One essential question is how such a significant institutional amendment affects local governments’ performance. Another paramount issue concerns how local leaders’ acceptance or lack thereof affects its implementation. The paper problematises the opinions of commune chairpersons on their role within the local government structure, their perceptions of term limits for executive bodies, and their assessments of the changes taking place in the Polish local government system, hypothesising that the socio-economic development of municipalities and the experience of rural commune heads shape their perceptions of changes in local government, including attitudes toward term limits. The research materials come from a survey conducted in 2021 among members of 133 rural municipalities in the Łódź voivodeship, located in central Poland, supplemented by in-depth questionnaire interviews conducted in 2022 among the rural municipality mayors of ten diverse municipalities in this region. The research revealed divided opinions among decision-makers regarding the reported change, depending on their length of term of office and the socio-economic situation of the municipality. In the opinion of the leaders surveyed, the municipality’s socio-economic status is more important than formal regulations on term limits.