Discussion Papers 1988.
Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
102
Marek POTRYKOWSKI
CONCENTRATION AND DECENTRALIZATION PROCESSES IN
POLISH INDUSTRY
Industrialization is the principal basis of
Polish economic policy. The industrial growth rate
in our country since World War II has been one of
the highest in the world. The greatest investment
outlays were made in industry, which provided most
of the new jobs. In the period 1946-1982, employ-
ment in industry increased  3.5  times: from 1.4
million to more than  5  million. The number of in-
dustrial. plants grew during that period from 21
thousand to  59  thousand, and the number of large
enterprises /employing more than 1000 people/ grew
from 542 in 1960 to 774 in 1982
/Lijewski,
1985/.
Following World War II, large disparities
existed in the spatial distribution of industry.
Namely, industry was concentrated mainly in the
Southern part of Poland, which resulted primarily
from the locations of mineral resource deposits
/in particilar anthracite, zinc, lead, ferrous and
copper ores and various raw materials for the con-
struction industry/. Besides that, the Western part
of Poland was more industrialized than the Eastern
part of the country, which, in turn, resulted from
the historical situations of these parts of our
country.
In order to determine more precisely the
degree of industrialization of particular areas, the
following classification can be used
/Misztal

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
103
and Kaczorowski, 1983/:
1. very weakly industrialized areas, with the
industrial employment indicator value below 50 pe-
ople per 100C inhabitants, which approximately cor-
responds to 10 % of the active population;
2. weakly industrialized areas, with the in-
dustrial employment indicator' value between 50 and
100 persons, that is, some 10-20 % of the active pcp-
ulation;
3. medium industrialized areas, with the in-
dicator value between 100 ard 150 persons per 1000
inbabitants, that is, some 20-30 % of the active pap."
ulation;
4. highly industrialized areas, with the in-
dicator value between 150 ard 200 persons employed
in industry, accounting for approximately 30-40 %
of the active population;
5. very highly industrialized areas, with the
industrial empaoyment indicator value above 200 per-
sons per 1000 inhabitants, i.e., more than 40 % of
the active population.
According to this classification, in 1946 on-
ly the area of present Lodz voivodship, out of the
territoriescfttrpresett 49 voivodships, was a very
highly industrialized area, this fact being to some
extent caused by the very small area of this voivod-
ship. The territories of the present Katowice and
Walbrzych voivodships were medium industrialized,
while the territories of the other 46 voivodships
were either weakly /12 voivodships/ or very weakly
/34/ industrialized. Thus, the most numerous group
was constituted by the very weakly industrialized
areas
/Misztal and Kaczorowski, 1969/.

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
i o4
/111E:1-4. distribution of industrial employment
for 1946 to 1984/.
The great disparities existing in the spatial
distribution of industry prompted the state during
the first post-war years to target their reduction
as the primary goal of regional policy. The first
period of economic reconstruction /i.e., 1946-1949/,
however, was based almost exclusirely on the repair
and reactivation of industrial plants destroyed
during the war; consequently, most of the country's
industrial potential was recreated. Employment in-
crease in industry was approximately 50 %. The speed
of reconstruction in various regions of the country
was quite differentiated, with the greatest in..
creases occu/ting in Warsaw, Wroclaw, and Szczecin
voivodships, whose capitals had been big industrial
centers before the war; as well as in Opole and
Zielona Gora voivodships.
In 1950, the so called six-year plan was
adopted for the period 1950-1955. It was an extra-
ordinarily ambitious plan, not only in the sense cf
creating the basic industrial potential, but also
in its tendency toward more uniform distribution of
the potential throughout the country's territory.
The plan was based cn a policy of forced industri-
alization to be carried out within the system and
forms of a socialist economy. A second parallel goal
was inclueed, defined as the elimination or spatial
social differentiation of class character through
more uniform distribution of productive forces. It
is easy to observe that the first goal contained
only indirect implications and tasks for spatial
policies, while the second ore involved such poli-
cies directly and specifically /Dziewonski, 1986/.

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
109
The plan envisaged construction of more than 1200
industrial plants, with a large share of them
located in weakly industrialized voivodships. Lack,
however, of appropriately prompt production effects
/construction of some plants lasted more than 7
years/ and slow increase - and sometimes ever
dEcrease - of the real wage levels led to imbal-
ances in the development of particular branches
of the economy and to a build-up of strong social
tensions. That is why the number of plants to be
constructed was limited and approximately 470 plants
were dropped from the plan. This concerned primari-
ly the free-location plants, whose purpose was to
be the activation of weakly industrialized areas,
so that efforts concertrated on finishing theEe
plants, whose construction had already started. Dur-
ing this period, though, growth relied on "exten-
sive" industrial development, based upon employment
increase. The first 5-year plan /period 1956-1960/
assumed primarily extension of the existing plants
and completion of those whose construction had been
started, thus giving up costly and little effective
investments in weakly developed regions.
In the decade 1961 to 1970, the industriali-
zation process underwent significant acceleration.
Initially, this process was characterized by a
strong tncrease cf investment outlays, related main-
ly to the extension of raw material and energy bases
by putting into operation resource deposits discov-
ered before: lignite in the Konin basin, copper ores
in the Legnica-Glogow basin, and sulphur in the
Tarnobrzeg voivodship. Besides that, efforts concen-
trated mainly on the extension of plants built in
the preseeding period and on modernization of old

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
110
plarts. There were, on the other hand, relatively
few big ard medium industrial plants, whose con-
struction was started after 1960 and which were
put into operation during the period in question.
Similarly, as in the period 1950-1960 and also in
the subsequent decade, more than  80 %  of all the
investmert outlays went into heavy industry, with
the greatest increases of their share in the in-
vestment totals displayed by fuel-and-erergy and
metal-machinery industries, with the latter ac-
courting for over  50 %  of the whole employment
increase in industry.
During the '60s, there occurred a well
pronounced acceleration of the industrializatior
process in the weakly industrialized regions
Nisztal and Kaczorowski, 19E3/. This acceleration
was best seen in the areas where newly developed
mineral resource deposits were put into operation
/Konin, Legnica, and Tarnobrzeg voivodships/, and
on the territories of Krosno, Plock, Radom, and
Slupsk voivodships. On the other hand, in 9  voi-
vodships with the lowest industrialization level,
located in the Eastern part of Poland, i.e., in
Biala Podlaska, Chelm, Ciechanow, Lomza, Ostroleka,
Przemysl, Suwalki, and Zamosc voivodships as well
as in Leszno viovodship, acceleration of the in-
dustrialization process, ,as measured by employment
dynamics in industry, was still quite weak. Invest-
ment made in these voivodships wert primarily into
wood, mineral, light, and food processing industri-
es located there, i.e., into little capital inten-
sive industries. Were industrialization measured
with the magnitude of investment outlays made, one
could conclude that in these 10 voivodships there

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
1 11
occurred in the period 1961-1970 no effective ac-
celeration of industrialization process. The 10
voivodships, accounting for 10.5 % of the nation's
population, obtained a mcre 3 % share in total in-
vestment outlays in Polish industry. More thar 1/3
cf all the investment outlays in industry, made
over the period in question, concerned Plants lo-
cated vithin the territories of Katowice, Bielsko-
-Biala, Czestochowa, Cracow, and Opole voivodships.
These investments were highly capital-intensive
/:rasource extraction ane metallurgy/ and did not
create very many new jobs.
The policy, effectively carried out in this
period, resulted from the pressure of factors moti-
vating concentration of industrial production and
from the tendency towards a more uniform develop-
ment of all the regions. Concentration of indus-
trial production was motivated by the economies of
scale and agglomeration, by non-uniform distribu-
tion of mineral resources, and tasides that by
almost uniform pricess within a branch throughout
the country and low - officially set - transporta-
tion prices. The tendency to disperse industry re-
sulted both from social reasons and from over sat-
uration of certain areas with industry.
The beginning of the subsequent decade,
1971-1980, was a starting point for the period of
great acceleration of industrialization in Poland.
Production increases mainly were due to moderniza-
tior of plants, to intensification of production
processes, and to better use of reserves. There
followed significant shifts in the structure cf in-
vestment outlays. The shares of fuel-and-energy and
chemical industries decreased, while those cf elec-

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
112
tronic, metallurgic, and consumption goods in-
dustries increased. Still, however, a significant
majority of investment outlays was absorbed by
extensions to the industries turning out means of
production.
In the period 1971-1975, there also oc-
curred essential changes in the geographical dis-
tribution of investment outlays. Inversions of
some of the development trends of the '60s could
be observed. The upper Silesian region /Katowice,
Bielsko-Bial.a, and Opole voivodships/ again in-
creased its share. The shares of central-Eastern
voivodships /Kielce, Radom, and Sieradz/, of port
and ship-yard voivodships /Gdansk and Szczecin/,
as well as of some other voivodships /Korin/ in-
creased, too. There was a decrease in the inveet-
ment shares of the South-Western voivodships, and
of those cn whose territories construction of
large-scale industrial plants had been terminated
/Legnica, Wloclawek, Plock, and Jelenia Gora/.
Generally speaking, in the first period of the
decade of the '70s, the development of various in-
dustry branches ard various regions was more har-
monious. Simultaneously, it was the period of a
very big investment effort. The dynamics of growth
of investment outlays increased  3.5  times. While
in the years 1961-1970 average ,annual growth of
investment value did not 'exceed  9 %,  in the period
1971-1975  it attained  34 % /Mistal and Kaczorowski,
1983/. Thus, great increase of investment outlays
was made possible by foreign credits. It was the
continuation of this policy of accelerated industr-
alization beyond 1975 and growing foreign debt that
led to economic disaster.

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
113
Naturally, all these fluctuations of goals,
policies, and priorities in the whole process of
industrialization were reflected also in spatial
policies by directly quickening or delying the
implementation of the second goal, one of more
even distribution of productive forces; and in-
directly by their impact on the structures and
processes of urbanization. When in the late fif-
ties it was realized that an even industrializa-
tion of all regions is neither posible nor desir-
able, this second goal was modified and superseded
by regional equalization in levels and conditions
of living with an equal opportunity for individual
development included.
Concentration of industry is an integral
part of the industrialization process. Concentra-
tion proceeds in at least four dimersions /Lijews-
ki, 1978/:
- technical, through installing of increas-
ingly effective equipment, enabling production
growth calculated per employee or per unit cost;
- economic, through concentration of means,
employment, production and other effects in a lim-
ited number of plants, whose share in the whole of
industry thereby increases;
- organizational, through mergers of small
plants and enterprises /leading sometimes to liqui-
dation of some of them/ into larger economic organ-
isms;
- spatial, resulting from the previous three
tendencies;
there follows a decrease of the number of localities
and points in which industry is located, with simul-

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
nit
taneous increase of the share of large centers and
industrial agglomerations.
In the course of post-war policies of devel-
opment of industrial centers, three phases can te
distinguished:
1. During the '50s, the principle of more
uniform geographical distribution of industry was
being heralded. In order to keep to this principle
smaller, but more densely distributed, industrial
centers were created. Limited total investment
volume did not allow the network of these centers
to encompass the whole of Polish territory.
2. In the '60s, investment outlays were
concentrated in several dozen development centers
/growth centers/ such as, for instance: Plock,
Wloclawek, Torun, Ostroleka, and Pulawy. Many of
these centers became capitals of new voivodships
in 1975.
3. After 1970, positive economic and social
features of development of large urban and urban-
industrial agglomerations were emphasized. This
view induced acceleration of the concentration of
industry.
Industrial concentration results from techni-
cal and economic prerequisities. This process is,
as a rule, advantages for a given branch or for the
whole of industry. From the point of view of society
as a whole, however, concentration entails numerous
negative effects. Since growth of industry in the
largest towns and industrial regions was too fast
for the local labour force supply and for housing
construction, it had been deemed proper already in
the /60s to adopt the principle of decongestion of

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
115
the biggest industrial centers as the leading
principle in formation of regional policies of
spatial allocation of productive forces. The
decongestion /"deglomeration"/ principle was the
fourth official principle to be implemented in
the policies of industrial location, after: /1/
principle of deconcentration of Upper Silesian
Industrial Region and Lodz /1947-1949/: /2/
principle of uniform distribution of industry
/1950-1955/; and /3/ principle of rational dis-
tribution of industry /1955-1960/, /see Misztal
and Kaczorowski, 1983/.
The decongestion principle was first imple-
mented at the beginning of the '60s, although ap-
propriate legal acts were formulated only at the
turn of the '50s and '60s. The whole action was at
that time described as the "industrial deglomera-
tion" and involved transfer of some /mostly/ small
industrial plants to smaller cities. After several
years, it turned out that this policy /only partly
successibl/ led in larger cities to serious shortages
of manpower and underutilization of productive
potential in industrial plants, most of which were
concentrated in those areas. The entire policy was
either scrapEd completely or disallowed /Dziewors-
ki, 1986/. Decongestion policies, caused mainly by
difficulties encountered in proper development of
large agglomErations, have brought some effects
through outward dislocation of some of the modern-
ized industrial plants within the territories of
Warsaw voivodship and its adjacent voivodships.
During that period, some 20 branches of large Warsaw
enterprises were located in various urban centers.
Simultaneously, these policies also had negative ef-

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
116
fects, such as important acceleration of the process
of ageing of the Warsaw population and idleness of
a portion of the existing production capacities.
Similarly, as in the case of Warsaw, large
enterprises located in other towns, whose develop-
ment in their primary locations was limited, started
to set
their branches outside the boundaries of
these towns, relocating their mainly less compli-
cated and more labour intensive functions. These
branches were for the most part being set up in
small towns within the less economically developed
areas, disposing of labour force reserves. In this
way, an essential factor of activation of regions
lagging in economic development was created. Until
the end of the '60s, there emerged in Poland several
dozen such branches, ussually employing hundreds of
people. The greatest number of such branches was set
up by the enterprises located in Warsaw. It should
be mentioned, though, that implementation of the
decongestion policy brought about tangible results
only within the areas of present Warsaw and Cracow
voivodships as well as in the central part of the
Upper Silesian Industrial Region.
Because of the differentiated development
of industry in various voivodships, their ranks
with respect to numbers of employees changed. Only
Katowice voivodship retained its first rank. Voi-
vodships with large shares of older industry, which
occupied high positions just after World War II,
regressed down the ranking. Intensively industri,
alized voivodships and these, whose industry was
reconstructed after the war's destruction, advanced
to higher positions. Shifts of ranks are, however,
not significant, Voivodships move by just a couple

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
117
of positions up or down the ranking. Even those
voivodships in which there were quite important
investments mede, like Konin, Tarnobrzeg, and
Legnica voivodships, advanced only slightly in
the ranking of industrialization. Changes in the
sequence of voivodships would be greater if the
fixed assets value measure could be taken into
account.
The picture of the dynamics of industriali-
zation growth - having in mind dynamics relative
to the initial level within a voivodship - is, most
generally speaking, inverse to the picture obtained
using absolute increases of employment in industry
as the measure of industrialization dynamics.
Namely, in the most industrialized voivodships, the
relative dynamics of industrialization growth is
the faintest, since these voivodships do not re-
quire further industrialization and efforts are
even undertaken to limit the development of such
branches of industry, which are not necessary in
these voivodships. With the initial high emrloyment
level, even a significant increase of the number of
employees yields a relatively low growth index value.
The situation is just the opposite in the weakly
industrialized voivodships, where even a small in-
crese in the number of people employed in industry
may mean multiplication of the initial level. That
is why all these voivodships display the highest
relative growth indices.
The voivodships with the highest dynamics
index values on the map form a half-ring to the
East and North of the country's center. The lowest
dynamics index values characterize the South-Nov"
thern and central-Western voivodships. Exceptions

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
118
are privided by Legnica and KOrtifl VOiVOCIShirF,
which are sort of "islands" of rapl.d greutL
within the areas of a weaker increase of industial
development.
Although in absolute numbers big cities are
still in the lead, the rate of their industrial
growth is slowing and the number of new locations
in these cities is decreasing. This tendency is
seen clearly when one compares locations in two
post-war periods: until 1966, when half of the in-
vestigated factories had been launched; and after
1966. In the earlier period, the eleven biggest
cities accounted for 24 per cent of new locations,
whereas in the later for 17.5 per cent /Lijewski,
1985/. The share of new factories located in medium-
sized cities, between 20,000 and 100,000 in popula-
tion, has grown relatively the most rapidly.
Figure 5
/after Lijewski, 1985/ shows the
spread of industry in Poland in the period 1945-
1982. The general trend was for new industrial
ventures to shift from the south and west to the
north and east. Naturally, there were exceptions,
one of them being the industrialization of Warsaw,
which largely outstripped the development of
neighbouring voivodships. The most important old
industrial regions /Upper Silesia and Lodz/ and
some old industrial cities /Poznan, Bydgoszcz, and
Gdansk/ witnessed a late upsurge of investment;
their median dates of industrialization lay between
1968 and 1970. Investments in those localities
often consisted of modernization or reconstruction
of older factories.
Two general development trends can be spe-
cified:

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
1 19
6
6,
03
Median data of starling major
industrird plants , 1946 - 1982
bofore 1980
711""'""
190-1986
after 1970
Source: Lijewski, 1985
FICURE 5 Spread of industry in Poland
1945-1982

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
120
- a decrease of the relative rate of growth
accompanying the attainment of higher levels of in-
dus tria liza tion ;? and
- a decrease of discrepancies among the
growth dynamics indicies of particular voivodships;
this decrease is the result of both the generally
advancing industrialization levels and the conscious
policy of equalizing the growth rates of particular
regions.
References
DZIEWONSKI, K. /1986/ Changing goals of spatial
policies and planning in Poland. Paper pre-
sented at 8th British-Polish Seminar in
London, July 1986. pp. 15.
LIJEWSKI, T. /1978/ Uprzemyslowienie Polski  1945-
-1975,  przemiany strukturalna i przestrzenne
/Industrialization of Poland 1945-1975,
structural and spatial changes/, PWN, War-
szawa.
LIJEWSKI, T. /1985/ The spread of industry as a
consequence of the location of new factories
in Poland, 1945-1982, Geographia Polonica,
51, pp. 199-206.
MISZTAL, S. - KACZOROWSKI, W. /1983/ Regionalne
zroznicowanie procesu uprzemyslowienia Polski
1945..1975. /The regional pattern of the in-
dustrialization process in Poland 1945-1975/,
Studia KPZK PAN, 76, Warszawa.
WILCZEWSKI,  R.
LIJEWSKI, T.
KORTUS, B. /1978/
Spatial industrial changes in Poland since
1945, in: F. E. Hamilton, ed., Industrial
change: international experience and public
policy, Longman, London - New York, pp. 80-
-98.

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
121
Table 1
Industrial  employment per  1000
inhabitants
1946
1960
1975
1984
1. Warsaw
43
130
147
112
2. Biala Podlaska
5
19
56
54
3.  Bialystok
14
55
97
91
4.  Bielsko—Biala
80
172
204
150
5.  Bydgoszcz
58
107
137
121
6.  Chaim
11
42
93
80
7.  CiechanOw
9
23
56
6o
8.  Czestochowa
53
122
153
126
9. Elblag
42
68
97
88
10. Gdansk
54
103
128
103
11. GorzOw Wlkp.
32
81
120
97
12. Jelena GOra
87
137
209
162
13. Kalisz
34
87
134
114
14. Katowice
176
234
237
216
15. Kielce
28
86
144
123
16. Konin
69
28
87
101
17. Koszalin
9
52
86
76
18.  Cracow
47
115
133
106
19. Krosno
26
63
125
118
20. Legnica
4o
1°5
165
159
21. Leszno
29
6o
84
79
22. Lublin
16
65
108
100
23. Lomza
2
19
51
53
24.  Lodz
210
260
259
180
25. Nowy Sacz
18
50
80
75
26.  Olsztyn
19
51
84
81
27.  Opole
41
120
1.47
129
28.  Ostroleka
6
20
63
67

Marek Potrykowski : Concentration and Decentralization Processes in Polish Industry
Discussion Papers 1988. Spatial Organization and Regional Development 102-122. p.
122
'946
196o
1975
1984
29.  Pila
34
6o
95
84
30.  Piotrkow Trybun.
40
93
147
139
31.  Plock
19
52
102
102
32.  Poznan
65
112
129
101
33.  Przemysl
8
32
72
76
34.  Radom
18
68
126
112
35.  RzeszOw
12
61
120
121
36.  Siedlce
5
23
65
64
37.  Sieradz
12
47
85
79
38.  Skierniewice
34
63
105
88
39.  Slupsk
14
50
105
94
40.  Suwalki
7
37
7o
66
41.  Szczecin
4o
84
116
lo6
42.  Tarnobrzeg
16
58
129
114
43.  TarnOw
16
68
112
96
44.  Torun
29
89
127
111
45.  Walbrzych
99
185
218
176
46.  Wloclawek
25
52
87
83
47.  Wroclaw
59
ill
152
121
48.  Zamosc
11
28
6o
59
49.  Zielona Gora
66
lo3
148
120