ABSTRACT:While most academic inquiry has focused on the new national government in postsocialist Poland, much of the responsibility for establishing democratic institutions and practices and a market economy has been delegated by Parliament (Sejm) to the local level. This has placed extreme stress on the local government arrangement. This study does two things: It examines Sejm's 1990 local government system as implemented in the city of Block and reveals a fractionated structure devoid of important executive authority. It also demonstrates how, in pursuing the city council's growth mandate, the mayor landed a Western clothing manufacturing plant in Plock and, in so doing, established business community linkages which contain key elements of an emerging urban regime.