State as Common Good and Local Government Community – Identity or Collision of Values?

 The constitution regulates many different goods and values that relate to individual and collective life. In the constitution of the republic, two types of civic communities are most important: the state as a common good and local government units. Author of the article analyzes these two values in the light of the Polish Constitution of April 2, 1997, historical and philosophical foundations, and especially the science of law and case law of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal. According to the author, the self-government community is an integral element of constitutional axiology, i.e. the idea of the common good that belongs to the essence of polish state. The principle of decentralization of public authority is an important technical and legal consequence of the concept of the republican state and the principle of subsidiarity, and not an independent axiological justification of the relationship between the state and local government. These relationships and their social acceptance depends not only on legal regulations, but also on the attitudes and responsibilities of politicians and ordinary citizens. The actual relationship between the republican state and the local government community and their social acceptance depends, however, on legal regulations, but also on the attitudes and responsibilities of politicians and citizens.