Urban movements are nowadays a frequent example of civic activity. They are becoming an inseparable element of both contemporary democracy as well as local governments. Taking into consideration the fact of growing popularity of this kind of civic activity it is worth to analyze the specifics of this phenomena and possible future impact on local governments' policy. The aim of this article is to examine the urban movements' phenomena and their actual possible influence on local governments' policy directions. 

Issues related to the administrative division of Poland are among those problems that are intriguing to various social circles: researchers, scientists, economists, politicians. Disputes as to the number of voivodeships and their shape have been going on uninterruptedly since the introduction of the new administrative division of Poland in 1999. Every now and then we are faced with recurring debates, disputes about the need to introduce changes in Poland’s territorial organisation, yet with no effects. That is why issuing the publication “Division of Poland into Voivodeships. An attempt at Objectivisation” in 2013 seems justified and necessary. This study might spur deliberations on the reorganisation of territorial space on a voivodeship level.

From 20 to 21 April 2009, in the cinema room of the Town Hall in Toruń, there was a two-day National Academic Conference entitled “Local Government: What it Should be Like?”. The conference was organised by the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Nicolaus Copernicus (UMK). The session’s initiator, as well as the academic director, was Prof. PhD (Prof. Dr Hab.) Alfred Lutrzykowski, a specialist and an expert of the subject of local governments. The organiser of the session chose as his main goal to explain the idea of local government in a state, as well as to define the direction of local governments development in Poland and in the world. Local government is an important and inseparable element, which decides about the level of democracy of both society and the state. It constitutes an arena, on which both smaller and bigger interests of various social groups are defined, but it is also an area in which the interests can be fully presented.

A characteristic feature of a modern state is dichotomy of its development. On one hand, it is striving a!er unification and universality of social, political and economic solutions aiming to integrate the world, but on the other, there is a growth of tendencies disintegrating a country, development of localness, aspiring to give local communities high level of independence and self-deciding powers, that is: the reverse of massive society. The phenomena connected with unification and aspirations for preserving local identity are complementary and complement one another. The globalization of world-wide system does not mean its inner homogeneity. The world is perceived as an internally diverse reality.

Creating a innovating social-economic environment is a key to to helping the development of society based on knowledge. The realisation of the innovation policy takes place at the local government level. The main strategy of development is created at the central level but it’s the local government is responsible for implementing that strategy. There can be observed a wrong understanding of innovation. Innovation is not only connected with new technologies and so it is more important now then ever to build a social attitude of innovation promotion.

The Polish Political Science Yearbook, WSB University in Bydgoszcz and Center for Local Government Studies in Bydgoszcz invite all scholars, researchers and professionals to participate in the PPSY Bydgoszcz International Seminar "Local Government: Experiences, Challenges & Models" which takes place in Bydgoszcz (Poland) on May 8, 2018. The conference supports a special section of the current Volume 47 of 2018 of the journal and its objective is to discuss challenges of security and stability in Central Europe and to present current advancements in regional security studies.

Deadline for application: April 25, 2018, with the Online Form.

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Przedmiotem analizy w artykule jest uchwalona przez Sejm RP 11 stycznia 2018 r. zmiana dotycząca kwestii ograniczenia możliwości kandydowania na wójta (burmistrza, prezydenta miasta) do dwóch kadencji, wprowadzona w Kodeksie wyborczym. Celem artykułu jest odniesienie się do przywoływanych różnych racji przemawiających za, jak i przeciwko m.in. takiemu rozwiązaniu, głównie natury czysto prawnej.

Local governence jako mechanizm współrządzenia w samorządzie terytorialnym może stać się skutecznym narzędziem wspierającym efektywność i jakość procesów decyzyjnych. Za jego jedną z form może być uznany budżet obywatelski (partycypacyjny), który od kilku lat jest wdrażany w Polsce. Celem artykułu jest przeanalizowanie budżetu obywatelskiego na przykładzie miasta Katowice pod kątem wpływu, jaki ma on na podnoszenie efektywności zarządzania gminą. Czy dzięki jego zastosowaniu rozwija się świadomość i zaangażowanie mieszkańców w sprawy lokalne. W artykule przedstawiono oprócz danych ogólnodostępnych wyniki badań własnych autora, przeprowadzanych w jednej z dzielnic miasta.

Od kilku dekad, nie tylko w Wielkiej Brytanii, obserwować można spadające zainteresowanie obywateli uczestnictwem w polityce i symptomy kryzysu demokracji przedstawicielskiej. Za jeden ze sposobów przeciwdziałania temu zjawisku uważa się wykorzystanie nowych technologii. Z jednej strony ich upowszechnienie umożliwia obywatelom szeroki dostęp do informacji, z drugiej rozszerza oferowane im możliwości udziału i wpływania na decyzje polityczne. Celem artykułu jest omówienie i analiza polityki kolejnych brytyjskich rządów dotyczącej wykorzystania Internetu do budowania skuteczniejszych kanałów komunikacji na poziomie lokalnym w Anglii i wzmocnienia demokracji. Wykorzystane metody badawcze to przede wszystkim analiza dokumentów oraz źródeł wtórnych. Szczególna uwaga została skupiona na analizie regulacji dotyczących wprowadzenia i rozwoju na poziomie lokalnym jednego z najpopularniejszych mechanizmów e-demokracji w Wielkiej Brytanii, który doczekał się regulacji ustawowej – elektronicznych petycji.

The European region as a form of territorial division of the European Union

The aspirations to develop cooperation within the European Union with partners at the regional level result from the considerable diversification of national legal systems and procedures and the resulting significant difficulties in the conduct and management of cooperation activities. An impulse to deepen the role of the region was the implementation of Structural Fund programs. Voivodships as regions are candidates for the role of the third participant of the EU agreement creating a new three-level system: the community – the state – the region. To participate in this role they must actively work to strengthen their position on the European forum, in particular in the bodies where are creating regional policy. An opportunity for the regions is the development of the European Union’s regional policy, the aim of which is to reduce the differences in local development and eliminate areas of poverty and backwardness. The article presents legal aspects related to the definition of “the region” under Polish law. It also presents the advantages of the Polish voivodship at the EU forum and possible forms of impact on the implemented EU policy.

The problem of the lack of “generational replacement” in Poland is particularly evident on the local self-government level. For years, there has been an ongoing public debate on the adoption of legal solutions introducing term-limits for the office of commune head, mayor and president of the city. Politicians of Law and Justice returned to their idea from 2005 and, shortly before the local elections of 2018, decided to prepare new regulations in this respect. They argued that the adopted solutions create real prospects for implementing projects by young politicians and activists. However, the issue was hotly debated and the initiators’ motives were put into question. There is no doubt that a two-term limit in local selfgovernment units has always stirred up emotions. A lot of self-government officials perceive it as a regulation which violates the provisions of the Constitution of the RP. The aim of this paper is to present the public debate on the adopted solutions and discuss their assumptions.

The text presents an outline of the history of local government development in Poland over the last hundred years, with particular emphasis on the last three decades. Its importance was discussed in the process of decentralization and democratization of the broadly understood political system. It was emphasized that it was this segment that was the first to be subjected to democratic changes and that it is in this area, both objectively and in the opinion of the public, that one can speak about the greatest success in rebuilding the social and political system of Poland. The extremely important role of self-government in the socio-economic development of the state was also pointed out, which is also connected with the fact that in no other country local governments play such a significant role in using EU structural funds. The role of local self-government as a school of democracy was also presented, showing that it is increasingly a kind of a center for the cadres of central power elites. Particular emphasis was placed on the fact that it is at this level that the instruments of direct democracy are used to the greatest extent, which favors democratic education in increasing social subjectivity. . It was also pointed out that after the parliamentary elections in 2015, won by the "Prawica Razem" coalition, the central authorities are taking steps to strengthen their position in relation to the local government.

Creation of new foundations for local government after regaining independence covered in practice only the former Russian partition. In remaining areas of the Reborn Republic of Poland, it was decided to temporarily preserve the administrative structures remaining after the former partitioners, adapting them only to the extent necessary. The first legal actions were the decree of the Head of the Polish State of 27-th November 1918 on the establishment of municipal councils in the area of former Congress Kingdom. There were two levels of self-government – rural communes and municipalities and the poviat. In the Prussian partition there were three levels of self-government – municipal (rural and urban), poviat, and at the highest level, there was a provincial council with an executive body. Structure of self-government in the area of former Austrian partition varied depending on the Crown Country. In Galicia and in Cieszyn Silesia showed many similarities.

The main purpose of this publication is to present the legal status of Budapest between 1990 and 1994 and to expound the evolution of its powers and functions between the abovementioned period. Basically legal perspective is reflected in this study therefore it follows the legislative hierarchy particularly. First of all, I will try to define what legal status really is in that context I will use it in this study. Having defined the conceptual questions, I will present the evolution of powers and functions of the capital by analysing the constitution the concerning acts and their ministerial reasonings as well.

This paper is the first step to fill a gap in the studies on the position of mayors in European local government systems. The first part of the paper will be devoted to critical analysis of theoretical and methodological studies on the position and selection of mayors. The second part will focus on verifying the proposed hypotheses. In the conclusions, an attempt will be made to present a profile of local democracy in CEE countries.

THE EMERGENCE, DEVELOPMENT, AND CRISIS OF CONCEPT OF THE VOIT, MAYOR, AND CITY PRESIDENT AS A LOCAL LEADER

Presented study concentrates on both forming and the crisis of the concept of local leadership in Poland, which concerns voits, mayors, and presidents of cities, directly elected by the citizens – e.g. a local government leaders. Particular attention was paid to legal and political mechanisms of their elections and political (democratic) responsibility towards the citizens. In these mechanisms, the factors were detected, which substantially weaken social trustworthiness of the role of the leader. Among them: particularly low rate of voting turnout in both local elections and referenda concerning deposition from appointments listed above and various manipulations distorting the true picture of public in these matters. Concept of a local leader in Poland has met very serious difficulties in practice and seems to be not attractive to the community.

Institutional and legal conditions of local elections in Ukraine in 2015

In this article the author analyzes the institutional and legal conditions of local “government” elections in Ukraine in 2015. Special attention is given to the determinants of formal elections to local government bodies. Indicates the specific nature of the local elections in 2015 (up today). The local elections in Ukraine in 2015 were held under the conditions of reforming local self-government. The main goal of the reform is the socalled decentralization. Local government reforms ensure the creation of associations of territorial communities of villages (cities, settlements). For the first time in the elections they took part association of territorial communities. In addition, the Ukrainian authorities have failed to conduct elections on the entire territory of the country. No votes were cast in Autonomous Republic of Crimea, due to the annexation of the peninsula by the Russian Federation in 2014. Elections to local self-government bodies were also not carried out in part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, due to the ongoing armed conflict in Donbass since 2014.

The Elderly and their issues in the selected electoral pleas in 2018

In the last 25 years Polish society’s aging process has been intensified what caused a constant growth of the number of people in the age 65 and more. Furthermore, according to demographic prognosis, the share of this age group will be rising in the next years, as well as the role of “silver” electorate. In the local governments selections in 2018 the Elderly were perceived as an important electorate group. Their problems were not ignored and political groups noticed the necessity of winning this group round. In campaigns and election programs candidates focused on the seniors’ needs. The main propositions dealt with safety and health issues, as well as concerns regarding institutional solutions targeted for this group specifically. It can be said the Elderly became one of the most desirable voters next to the Young on Polish political scene.

Selected forms of international cooperation in the development policy of the City of Gdynia

The article describes several forms of international cooperation in Gdynia. It shows its influence on the development and promotion of the city in last years.

The considerations in the article focus on the role of territorial local government in two important spheres of welfare state – in providing access to education, and health care. The authors characterize the situation in Poland after the parliamentary elections won in 2015 by the Law and Justice (PiS). The first part of the study analyses the reforms undertaken in the education system and their consequences for territorial local government, in particular increasing the compulsory education age as well as changing the school system. The second part contains a description of planned and implemented changes in health care.