In my article I suggest two models of social participation which can positively influence on the process of building the civil society in Ukraine, especially in the area of local government. I want to consider two types of the participatory budgeting, first comes from Porto Allegre in Brazil and the second one from Lodz in Poland. The first model, 27 years old, is the example of representative democracy and is characterized by hierarchical structure. On the other hand, we have different model which is the representative of participatory democracy without any gradation. In this area of research I’m going to choice the best proposition which fit in the process of political transition on Ukraine.

Social media in the process of building civil society in Lublin
Abstract: Implementation of the policy of participatory management of the city includes the active involvement of citizens in the processes of co-decision. The involvement of the residents in the policy of urban space development gains more and more recognition among the local authority regulating the rules of cooperation with the citizens in the local and national law. Implementation of new communication tools is a response to social needs, as results of social needs and made them used by the residents. Natural stage communication process has to incorporate social media into a dialogue with the residents.
Below I present an analysis of social media and the role they play a in the process of building civil society Lublin. In this article I will present the media used by the City of Lublin in communicating with residents, the role of social media in this process and the level of social involvement in the communication process with the use of Facebook.
Looking at the city as a place for the realisation of the residents’ needs, one cannot overlook the instruments for their implementation. Every city builds its own code of activity. The success of the residents in the realisation of their projects equals the success of the authorities in the implementation of the participatory city management policy.

Artykuł jest analizą roli budżetu partycypacyjnego w procesie partycypacji społecznej. Przedstawione trzy modele jego funkcjonowania prezentują różny ich wpływ na jakość kapitału społecznego, czyli cechy społeczeństwa objawiające się wysokim poziomem zaufania, współpracy oraz więzi społecznych między obywatelami. W celu przeprowadzenia analizy zostanie zastosowana koncepcja kapitału społecznego i wspólnot obywatelskich Roberta Putnama.

Even though participatory budgets have rather short history in Poland criticism of its unwanted side effects have pushed some municipal authorities towards quick reforms of their initial visions. Most of them have decided just for small adjustments, but some have tried to be innovative and have reformed the whole mechanism. In this article, author attempts to take a closer look at consequences that accompany changes aimed at more quality of the whole procedure. The article aims to examine how more deliberation affects legitimization of participatory budgets. It is also an attempt to find out whether it brings expected outcomes within quality and profile of selected projects. Finally, we may learn here how people deal with more advance procedures. The analysis should serve anyone who is willing to search for new solutions among direct democracy tools in Poland.

The article analyses the Polish political thought after 1989 concerning the local self-government. Attention was drawn to various currents of the Polish political thought, such as liberalism, conservatism, the teaching of the Church, social democracy or nationalism. Particular attention was paid to the role of the self-government in building civil society and to the forms of citizen participation. According to the main hypothesis, the activity of the local self-government is generally accepted. The self-government is an important element of political projects and is considered an important element of civil security and plays an important role in building the civil society. The thought of Charles Taylor “the atrophy of the self-government constitutes a danger for the stability of the liberal society and in the consequence for the freedom protected by it” suited undoubtedly the liberals and the representatives of other political trends

The purpose of this article is to analyze the behavior of local authorities on the issue of participatory budget in the situation of confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. A new category has been introduced here - direct contact-free democracy, which aims to emphasize the need to avoid personal contact while continuing the performance of mechanisms accompanying democracy. To verify the accepted hypothesis, an existing sources analysis, and a survey, in which more than 40 cities with district rights participated, were conducted.

Youth councils and their participation on the decision-making process on a local level in Poland

Youth Councils in Poland have been operating since 2001. According to the Act on commune self-government, these councils are consultative entities whose purpose is, inter alia, giving opinions on normative acts issued by local government bodies. The article presents the results of research carried out as part of the project ‘From dialogue to deliberation. Non-public entities as (not) present participant in the local decision-making process’. The research covered Youth Councils and the participation of these entities in the decision-making process at the local level in Poland.

After the post-communist transition, decentralisation and subsidiarity have become one of Poland's major principles of political organisation. Moreover, especially the original 1990 reform and establishment of self-governing communes are regarded as a success story, not only in improving the quality of governance and public service provision but also in the civil society and citizen participation, as evidenced by the development of modern urban movements. The article explores legal possibilities for further decentralisation of municipalities, analysing the role of ancillary units in regional capitals. Ancillary units in Poland have developed differently in the countryside and urban communes. Relying on publicly available information and data provided by the respective municipal offices, the article describes the ancillary units' statutory role, competencies, and actual activities. The findings enable the assessment of the application of the sublocal decentralisation solution in Polish cities and the identification of its benefits and shortcomings.

The participatory budget is an important element of the catalogue of tools for involving residents in the local decision-making. The positive effects of involving many citizens in the decision-making process slowly bear fruit in attempts to transfer p.b. into other spheres. This article analyses how these well-known patterns are adapted to new conditions – at universities. Several of them decided to introduce their own participatory budget. A comparative analysis of the local government model and solutions adopted by three universities provides the answer to this question. The hypothesis assumes that the civic budget at universities and polytechnics is, for the most part, a modification of the model used in cities with district status. As shown, the municipal participatory budget is a proven basis for creating its own regulations. However, the available schemes should be modified.

Youth Councils as Entities of Youth Participation in Local Communities – Legal Analysis of Art. 5b of the Act on Municipal Self-Government of March 8, 1990

The article is part of a publication cycle on research on the institution of communal youth councils in local self-government communities in Poland. This publication analyzes the current legal regulations regulating the functioning of youth councils. Additionally, the legal basis for participation was presented, taking into account the provisions of the Polish Constitution as well as the act on municipal self-government. The essential part of the article is the analysis of the original wording of Art. 5b of the Act on Municipal Self-Government and the changes that have occurred in it after the amendment of April 20, 2021.

Not only a discussion. About participatory forms and methods of youth organizations operating in the territory of Ukraine

The subject of the text concerns various forms and methods of the participation of selected Ukrainian youth organizations, which were particularly active in 2018. The author discusses the basic theoretical assumptions by analyzing the issue of participation in relation to Polish and foreign literature of the subject. Then, she describes the research material and methods of analysis of the collected empirical data. In the last part of the article, the author presents the most important conclusions regarding the „soft” and „hard” forms and methods of the participation of six youth organizations operating in Ukraine.

Co-creation of public policy can be considered a democratic innovation, all the more so as this approach seems to secure the possibility of „redefining what is democracy”. Understood this way, it is a direct source of changes in urban governance systems. Hence, the essence of the considerations is reflection on co-creation as a principle regulating the current urban governance practices and public participation in Berlin. The subject of the analysis in the empirical part of the paper is the Sozialer Zusammenhang („Social Cohesion”) Programme implemented since 2020. The aim is to present the specificity accompanying co-creation with citizens and evaluate the solutions’ effectiveness. Particular attention is paid to the key issue of what institutional arrangements support co-creation in a specific local context, i.e., at the neighbourhood level, and to discuss to what extent they can be considered effective public participation.

The article addresses the issue of the social implications of participating in religious groups, with particular emphasis on shaping the type of social capital among members of the mentioned religious groups or any group of a religious nature. It is not sufficiently represented in research work on modern sociology, especially the sociology of religious and modern lives, considering the context of the functioning of a modern man in their interpersonal space. To this end, qualitative research was carried out involving individual case studies. Various qualitative techniques were used: interviews, an analysis of document contents, photographs, biographies, observing participants in their social activities, trust, social ties (among members of the mentioned groups), the social roles of members, the implementation of social functions, participation in the common good, and the values and norms of social coexistence that guide the studied person. These imply the emergence of negative social capital, closing social capital, amoral familism and strong bonds in the norms developed by the group to which the analysed case belongs.

Citizen assembly in the perspective of participants and attendees

The citizens’ assembly is a relatively new form of democracy, consisting of developing a thoughtful set of recommendations preceded by a detailed analysis of a given issue. The suggestions formulated are agreed upon by a representative group of residents and this process is preceded by an education phase that aims to provide participants with reliable knowledge regarding the subject of the panel. These characteristics make this co-decision mechanism increasingly popular, including in Poland. Citizens’ assemblies have been implemented in most major Polish cities. However, there is no doubt that for organizers, as well as for participants and urban communities, this is something new. Therefore, it seems important to conduct in-depth research on the implementation of panels in Polish conditions. In this context, the aim of the article is to present the results of a study on the II Łódź Citizens’ Assembly. The obtained results show that the citizens’ assembly is positively evaluated by those participating in it. Participants of the Łódź panel particularly emphasized its educational and social merits, while somewhat less so the political aspect, that is the opportunity to influence the city, which is the primary function of the panel.

Model of Civic Education in the Republic of Austria

Civic education (politische Bildung) is one of the pillars of a democratic state. Austria, following German solutions, has created its own model of political education. The first part of the article outlines terminological issues in the light of Polish and German literature. Next, the conditions, goals and assumptions of civic education in Austria will be presented, with particular emphasis on its role in shaping civic competences. Further analysis of the Austrian model will allow the formulation of conclusions and recommendations, which may be impulses for further discussion in the face of the internationalization of science and transnational transfer of knowledge and competences, as well as for the implementation of innovative systemic solutions in the field of civic education.

The Innovation of the Citizens’ Legislative Initiative in Finland

Finland was relatively late in introducing the institution of the citizens’ legislative initiative into its legal order, only in 2012. However, it can be said that the solutions adopted, both constitutional and statutory, differ to some extent from typical regulations. There are both formulated and unformulated initiatives, and the choice of the form of initiative depends on the initiators. Moreover, the digitisation of the initiative submission process is noteworthy. Particularly noteworthy is the creation of a generator of such initiatives. It has translated into a significant interest of citizens in this form of initiating the legislative process. However, this does not change the fact that the success rate of such initiatives is not particularly high. This concerns both the successful collection of signatures of support and the eventual subsequent acceptance of the citizens’ proposal by the Finnish parliament.