ABSTRACT
This analysis aims to present and assess the impact of historical factors on the differences in socio-economic development of Poland at the local level and to compare them with the results of other research that shows the effects of similar analyses carried out for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The study is based on the analysis of spatial diversification of the socio-economic development level classes and indicators of the electoral support structure of residents by means of spatial regression methods. The spatial scope of the work includes the local, or the commune level (LAU2) and furthermore takes into account the division of the present-day territory of Poland by the relict borders of partitions (1772, 1793, 1795), established at the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the course of Poland’s borders between the two world wars (1918–1939), conclusively determined in 1922. The main timeline of the study is the years 2004–2016 and, retrospectively, the 1815–1939 period.
