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.

Co-creation of public policy can be considered a democratic innovation, all the more so as this approach seems to secure the possibility of „redefining what is democracy”. Understood this way, it is a direct source of changes in urban governance systems. Hence, the essence of the considerations is reflection on co-creation as a principle regulating the current urban governance practices and public participation in Berlin. The subject of the analysis in the empirical part of the paper is the Sozialer Zusammenhang („Social Cohesion”) Programme implemented since 2020. The aim is to present the specificity accompanying co-creation with citizens and evaluate the solutions’ effectiveness. Particular attention is paid to the key issue of what institutional arrangements support co-creation in a specific local context, i.e., at the neighbourhood level, and to discuss to what extent they can be considered effective public participation.