Creating the state from above and below, local government in inter-war Latvia

grantor: University of Toronto"Creating the State from Above and Below" tracks the course of local government in Latvia from 1918 until 1940. The relationship between elected local councils and the central ministry that supervised local governments reflected upon larger emerging issues of the role of the state and its citizens. Early in the Republic's existence local governments emerged as nearly autonomous units, but the great devastation of World War One and the War for Independence overwhelmed local economies. The centre, through the agency of the Department of Local Government, reasserted control over local governments with the provision of financial aid and planning. The provision of minority education and the emerging divide between older, established farmers and the beneficiaries of the radical agrarian reform particularly defined local governments in the 1920s. Riga, Latvia's capital, and the ethnically diverse, poor eastern province of Latgale broke significantly from the general Latvian mould in the nature of local governments and their relations with the state. The Great Depression shook the economic foundations of local governments and reverberated through political life as well. Coalition building and generating consensus became increasingly difficult. Tax arrears mounted throughout Latvia's local governments. Nevertheless, by late 1933 local governments posted clear economic indicators that local economies were on the mend. In 1934, however, Karlis Ulmanis used the depression as a pretext for an authoritarian coup. After dismissing parliament, his regime turned on local governments purging systematically all but the most ardent coup supporters. This purge extended from local councils to school teachers and common employees targeting particularly leftists and minorities. Local government lost its function as a nexus between state and citizen, instead becoming a transmission belt for central directives. The regime appointed officials that were more loyal than competent, and increasingly relied on bureaucratic staff to administer local government. Local government became an extension of an authoritarian state that directed society, the economy and culture. The state's curtailment of local participation in government created a precedent for the form of governance that the Soviets and Nazis would use.Ph.D