Public interest and public good in administrative law against the background of the constitutional principle of the common good

The subject matter of this article is the construction of the public interest and the public good in the administrative law presented against the background of the constitutional principle of the common good. The article puts forward a research thesis: the constitutional principle of the common good is the axiological basis for shaping by the administration of the public interest and the granting of certain public goods to the public. Concepts included in the title of the study are semantically close, but it is not reasonable to put an equality sign between them. Common good is an ideological superstructure in the public interest, as evidenced by the presence of a constitutional principle of common good in the definitions of public administration. As a consequence, the common good must be assumed to be a general clause defining a correct understanding of the public interest as well as the scope of public goods in administrative law.

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.

The adoption of the UE Directive on Open Data and Re-use of Public Sector Information gives rise to necessity of its implementation by the Member States of the European Union. The process of implementing the Directive in Poland has also a significant constitutional value, because - according to the authors of this article - its content is realization of the principle of the common good (Article 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland: “The Republic of Poland shall be the common good of all its citizens”). This is because data sharing has not only economic value, allowing the entity using access to public information to achieve a financial benefit, but also in other areas, where, in principle, both parties (a person and public authority) benefit from such action. Therefore, the role of public authorities should be to ensure the widest possible access to public sector information in order to implement the constitutional principle of the common good.

Security as a public good in the light of constitutional law

The study is a voice in the discussion: security as a good. In the light of the constitutional principle of the common good, a redefinition of security was proposed as the sum of the conditions of social life enabling and facilitating the integral development of all members of the community. The common and public good are products produced by state structures and their members. In order to minimize the attitudes of „common – nobody’s” and free-riders, in order to create dependence, responsibility to care for good, the topic of the theory of group solidarity was raised.

Banality of the common good – hermeneutical study

Article is an attempt for the creation a new way of thinking about the common good, which is possible to realize in practice (particularly in view of depleting natural resources). Firstly, author defines terms such as: the good, the community , the common good, indicating a tendency to bipolar thinking about these ideas: relativist and absolutist. The second part consist analysis of these ideas from the one perspective – hermeneutics. In this part „banality” is not a „name” for common good. It is a „name” for the way of thinking (bipolar). In the third thematic sequence, author explain the new way of thinking. From now we have formal and material good defined in political sphere rather than ethics.

The Principle of the Common Good as a Source of Civil Society in Poland

The article concerns the constitutional sources of civil society in Poland. Although the Polish Constitution does not refer directly to civil society, it expresses its key values and assumptions in numerous provisions. The constitutional principle of the common good should be regarded as the basis of civil society in the Republic of Poland. The article indicates the links between the principle of the common good and the constitutional model of civil society. The axiological convergence of both categories mentioned is based, inter alia, on the respect for civic rights and freedoms, but also on the emphasis on the duties that the individual-citizen performs for the state. It is for this reason that the principle of the common good in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997 combines elements of the individualist and communitarian conception of the civil society.

The article aims to investigate the system of the social market economy in Poland and Italy. It compares constitutional provisions, distinguishing national commonalities and discrepancies. They are the basis for the identification of the precepts common to all social market economies in Europe. The analysis concludes that combining economic rights with social interests is essential to establishing the social market economy.