Social control in local government units

Local self-government is an important element of the political system of democratic countries. It satisfies numerous collective needs and also participates in the exercising of public authority. This makes it necessary to exercise control over the activities of local government units. The article deals with the issues of control carried out by members of local and regional communities, and focuses on the consequences of its legal institutionalization. An example of a new form of control was used, which is the debate on the report on the state of a local government unit. Both the institutional-legal analysis and the comparative method have been applied to verify the following thesis: legal institutionalization of social control makes it easier for citizens to undertake it, creates better conditions for controlling the actions of local and regional authorities, with the advantages of institutionalization of control outweighing its certain shortcomings.