Art. 63 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997 provides everyone with the right to submit petitions to state authorities. The procedure for considering petitions is specified by the Act on Petitions of 11 July 2014. According to the law, petitions can, in particular, take the form of a request to amend the law. The aim of the article is to focus on petitions concerning the amendment of electoral law against the background general information on the legal regulations in this regard. In the 8th term of office of the Sejm, which began on 12 November 2015, there were five petitions submitted to the parliament which concerned electoral issues. The petitioners proposed amendments in regard to the manner of electing senators to the Senate of the Republic of Poland and councilors in the communities of up to 100,000 residents, strengthening mechanisms that would counteract “electoral frauds”, electoral thresholds in the elections to the Sejm and mandatory voting.

The subject of the article is a petition, or rather the right to submit it, understanding the concept of petition, as well as the nature of the petition and its relationship with the concepts of a complaint and a proposal in the context of Art. 63 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997. The notion of the right to petition in both narrow and broad terms has been analyzed. The position of the doctrine on this issue was presented.

The article presents a theoretical and legal analysis of local democracy. The top place in democratic transformations in local democracy; is an effective system of local self-government that is impossible without working mechanisms to implement legislation in the field of local democracy at both national and local levels. The author points out that the importance of local democracy is determined by its essence and role. After all, the local level is the closest to the population, needs, and problems. The creation of appropriate living conditions should be determined locally. It is determined that the term «local area» means a reasonably extensive range of phenomena and processes. In defining this term in scientific doctrine, emphasis is placed on a particular phenomenon or process. The predominance of local democracy is understood as a national model of democracy, as the participation of citizens in governance, as a form of self-organization of citizens and as a democratic system at the municipal level. Based on the analysis of scientific points of view, conclusions are made about the peculiarities of local democracy. The main characteristics of local democracy are an organization of the life of the territorial community on the principles of equality, participation, public dialogue; involvement of citizens in community affairs, dissemination of practices of local initiatives, referendums; self-organization of the population. The local democracy is the development of the people, the broad involvement of local people in participation in matters of meaning. Effective local democracy is a prerequisite for sustainable and equitable economic and social development, good governance, and the promotion of democratic values. The proper functioning of democratic institutions and processes at the local level is a determining and vital factor. Active citizenship at the local level lays the foundation for a stable and robust democracy at the national level because the policy at the national level uses practices and methods at the local level. In contrast, experience at the local level is the basis for national policy and reform.

Exercising the Right to Petition by Commune Residents Against the Background of Constitutional Regulations

The right to petition regulated in Article 63 of the Constitution is qualified as a political right. It may complement entirely different rights through which citizens may exert influence on public authorities. For this right to be exercised the mode of examining petitions had to me specified. The legislator did so by passing the Petitions Act. In turn, regulations introduced to the Commune Self-Government Act that established a Commission for Complaints, Requests and Petitions were to serve as a measure for residents of basic local government units to exercise this right. This study aims to assess the adopted legal regulations from the point of view of their influence on the efficiency of implementation of the right to petition by members of a commune self-governing community. It will point to organizational and procedural measures which when employed may be a source of real problems.