Artykuł stanowi próbę oceny skutków wprowadzenia zmian w systemie wyborczym organów jednostek samorządu terytorialnego wynikających z ustawy o zmianie niektórych ustaw w celu zwiększenia udziału obywateli w procesie wybierania, funkcjonowania i kontrolowania niektórych organów publicznych przyjętej w 2018 roku. Autorzy weryfikują hipotezy postawione przed zastosowaniem nowego systemu w praktyce, dotyczące wpływu zmian na proporcjonalność wyborów oraz możliwości uzyskania samodzielnej większości przez jedno ugrupowanie w organach stanowiących na poziomie gminy oraz ryzyka całkowitej dominacji jednego podmiotu w tym organie. Ocenie poddano również wpływ ograniczenia możliwości wykorzystywania biernego prawa wyborczego w wyborach do rad przez osoby kandydujące do organu wykonawczego w gminie.

Impact of Changes in the Electoral System in 2018 on the Political Position of Presidential Parties in Municipalities over 20,000 Inhabitants

The aim of the paper is to assess the impact of changes introduced in 2018 to the electoral system used in elections of the councils of municipals over 20,000 inhabitants on the political position of the parties backing selected mayors and presidents of cities. This research perspective is justified by the special role of these groups resulting from the system of the commune, in particular the method of election and irrevocability of the executive, that is forced to try to gain control over the decision-making process in the council. The study used the Shapley-Shubik strength index as that reflects the actual strength of a political party in a collegiate body better than the number of seats or participation in a mandate set. The results of the survey confirmed that the analyzed change weakened the position of the presidential parties in most of the analyzed aspects.

On the Concept of the Electoral Treshold in Elections to Municipal Councils

The barrier clause is an institution of special importance in the context of the proportional system. The aim of this article is to present and evaluate the course of parliamentary work accompanying the transformation of the concept of the prohibition clause in the elections to municipal councils in 1990–2018. The research carried out on the basis of the formal-dogmatic method allows us to assume that the position of the dominant political forces on the application and level of the election threshold in local elections was characterized by considerable variability, showing connections with the lack of a clearly crystallized view on the shape of the electoral system in the strict sense of the organs constituting the basic level of local government.