Russian system of local government

Local democracy and local government are popular terms and they are playing as the most important dimensions in the viability of any modern democracy. Alexis Tocqueville, who wrote a major book about democracy, considered local government as the mainstay of local democracy. He also saw local democracy as a school of political education and a safety valve of democracy for the entire nation. Most of the European countries have attempted to incorporate these concepts into their political and development process. In article author analyses the role of local government in Russian political system. Objective of the article is to identify and characterize the main stages of development of local self-government in Russia.

The article aims at restoring local self-government as a research problem of political theory. In contemporary political science literature, local self-government is not treated as one of its normal, standard research problems. The main obstacle of its ambiguous position within political theory is, as I argue, the forced and imposed apolitical character of local self-government considered as a part of public administration. Despite some degree of organizational, especially institutional and legal, self-determination, the local self-government is not a political, i.e. sovereign entity. However, its non-sovereign status, which is legally established, does not exclude the existence of political potency in it.

The paper explores Wrocław Civic Budget in the context of procedures and impact. It reviews various data to present different aspects of this process: number of projects submitted and implemented, citizens’ participation in the selection process, geographical distribution of the implemented projects and their contents, showing the significant fall in the citizens’ interest in the process after two years of its implementation. The paper aims to analyze whether the project in its current form actually succeeds in activating the citizens’ and involving them in the local decision-making on one hand, and changing the city on the other. The effectiveness of participatory budgeting in Wrocław is explored, considering such criteria as reliability, impact, activation and innovativeness. The data reveal both the successes and drawbacks of Wrocław Civic Budget, allowing for presentation of recommendations.

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 subject of the article is an analysis of the possibility of holding the function of a commune head (mayor, city president) in the light of the generally applicable law in Poland by a person convicted of public prosecution with a fine.

The presidential election campaign in Poland in 2020 was unique due to the epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. A high level of attendance during the presidential election, influenced by the pro-turnout initiatives, was achieved. The article analyzes selected activities aimed at achieving a high level of attendance, the beneficiaries of which were local governments.

The paper presents four problems which constitute the most important problems related to the functioning of local government in Poland. The first issue concerns the unfinished reform of the political system. The author finds that the legislator did not implement fully the assumptions concerning the creation and functioning of local governments which are determined in the provisions of the Polish Constitution of 1997. In consequence, a contemporary political system is full of internal contradictions and does not function properly. Next, it was indicated in the work that the legislator interferes too much in the independence of local government units. Too many acts, which regulate duties and procedures, limit the autonomy of local government bodies which should determine their duties and objectives and allocate financial resources to their implementation. Third, the author finds that the permanent underfinancing of local government units poses a very serious problem. The system of financing is outdated and does not correspond to contemporary needs of local communities, which results in a decrease in investments and development and an increase in debt. Finally, the article discusses the issue of excessive politicization of local governments. The author finds that transferring political disputes from the central level to the local one is very detrimental and has a negative influence on the development and functioning of local governments.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the behavior of local authorities on the issue of participatory budget in the situation of confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. A new category has been introduced here - direct contact-free democracy, which aims to emphasize the need to avoid personal contact while continuing the performance of mechanisms accompanying democracy. To verify the accepted hypothesis, an existing sources analysis, and a survey, in which more than 40 cities with district rights participated, were conducted.

When criticizing the principles of liberal democracy, radical parties, both leftand right, take advantage of this particular type of democracy by participating in local and nationwide elections. They take part in each subsequent election under their flag or by putting up candidates on the lists of other electoral committees. The major aim of the parties when participating in elections is to promote their political appeal and reaching the biggest number of local communities possible. Under the mechanisms of local democracy, including local government elections, radical parties can join in the decision-making system by investing relatively little resources.

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.

Celem artykułu było przedstawienie zagadnienia związanego z ograniczeniem liczby kadencji włodarzy w Polsce. Analizie poddano dane empiryczne, pochodzące z badań ankietowych, w których zapytano respondentów o to, czy opowiadali się za ograniczeniem możliwości sprawowania funkcji wójta, burmistrza oraz prezydenta miasta do dwóch kadencji. Zmiennymi, które wzięto pod uwagę, były: udział ankietowanych w wyborach samorządowych w 2018 roku, deklarowany udział w wyborach parlamentarnych, deklarowane poglądy, deklarowana religijność oraz wiek respondentów. Badania ankietowe zostały przeprowadzone w okresie od grudnia 2018 r. do lutego 2019 r. w ramach ogólnopolskiego projektu badawczego pt. „Preferencje polityczne. Postawy – identyfikacje – zachowania” realizowanego od 2009 r.

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.

Gloss to the Decision of the Supreme Court of 28 November 2019, file reference number III CSK 275/17

The thesis expressed in the glossed judgment that the poviat bears sole responsibility for the damage caused by the issuing of a defective administrative decision by the starost as part of the architectural and construction administration is, in principle, correct. However, this responsibility does not result – as the Court assumed in the commented judgment – from the nature of the tasks performed by the starost, but from the current legal regulations contained in the Civil Code (Art. 417 § 2). Incorrect determination of the nature of the tasks in the field of architectural and construction administration resulted in the dismissal of claims for damages against the State Treasury and local government unit despite the fact that at the time when the decision on the building permit was taken, Art. 4202 of the Civil Code, providing for joint liability of the State Treasury and of a local government unit for damages caused in the performance of government administration tasks specified by law, was in force.

The aim of the text is the analysis of the tasks and activities of the municipal self-government during the organization of the 2020 election of the President in Poland during the period from the beginning of February to May 10, 2020, when, due to the development of the pandemic, the process of preparing the election took a different course. The study is based on documents and five in-depth expert interviews conducted with persons associated with the organization of the elections. This publication draws attention to the lack of knowledge about various aspects of the pandemic, the protraction of the decision-making process, the lack of cooperation, and citizens’ fears.

Youth councils and their participation on the decision-making process on a local level in Poland

Youth Councils in Poland have been operating since 2001. According to the Act on commune self-government, these councils are consultative entities whose purpose is, inter alia, giving opinions on normative acts issued by local government bodies. The article presents the results of research carried out as part of the project ‘From dialogue to deliberation. Non-public entities as (not) present participant in the local decision-making process’. The research covered Youth Councils and the participation of these entities in the decision-making process at the local level in Poland.

The aim of this article is to analyse the attitude of the contemporary Polish national camp towards local government in the political concepts of the two most influential political parties of this trend - League of Polish Families and National Movement. In the article are characterized the most important issues such as: the role of local government, the tasks of local government, the postulated reforms.

The political transformation in Poland, initiated in the first half of 1989, was the beginning of deep, systemic changes in all mechanisms of collective life and public authority. The transformations were characterized as complex and multifaceted, which generated new conflicts and socially perceptible costs. However, such deep changes were necessary because they opened the way for Poland and Polish society towards European standards of organization and activity of all entities of public life. The most important principles on the basis of which the new constitutional model of the state was built were deconcentrating the authority mechanism and decentralizing its powers. This meant that the administration alsobecame a very important area of transformational changes. In this regard, a special role was played by actions aimed at reconstructinglocal government which was to become an integral part of the new public authority system and to carry out a significant part of public tasks.

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.

The primary burden of tackling the pandemic COVID-19 lies with the state as the entity responsible for protecting the health and life of its citizens. Hence, it can be argued that the focus of the pandemic-induced changes to the Polish legal order was on administrative law, which not only sets out the principles of the functioning of the State as the executive power but also governs the relations between the government, local government and citizens, which had to be significantly modified during the pandemic. It would be impossible to analyse and discuss all the emergency measures that appeared in Poland’s administrative law due to the threats posed by the pandemic. The subject matter of the present study is the analysis of the legal solutions adopted in the Republic of Poland in the sphere of public law in connection with the spread of the virus and particular provisions shaping relationships between the two basic structural branches of Polish public administration, viz. the government administration and the local-government administration. The following part of this study will accordingly be devoted to the analysis of the legislative solution contained in Article 11h of the COVID-19 Act, establishing a legal framework for issuing binding instructions to, among others, the various bodies of local governments, local-government legal persons and local-government organisational entities without legal personality.

Youth Councils as Entities of Youth Participation in Local Communities – Legal Analysis of Art. 5b of the Act on Municipal Self-Government of March 8, 1990

The article is part of a publication cycle on research on the institution of communal youth councils in local self-government communities in Poland. This publication analyzes the current legal regulations regulating the functioning of youth councils. Additionally, the legal basis for participation was presented, taking into account the provisions of the Polish Constitution as well as the act on municipal self-government. The essential part of the article is the analysis of the original wording of Art. 5b of the Act on Municipal Self-Government and the changes that have occurred in it after the amendment of April 20, 2021.