Polish Political Science Yearbook

10

Authors: Szymon Gajewski

The analysis of the results of the elections to regional parliaments of 2018 allows to take a closer look at the current political preferences of the electorate one year before the parliamentary elections. The distribution of support for political parties in individual provinces shows that Law and Justice (PiS) enjoys constant, high and stable support, which will most likely allow this party to extend mandate to rule the country for the next 4 years. The largest opposition party, the Civic Platform (PO), sees the chances of victory in uniting further opposition groups around itself. The common start with Nowoczesna under the name of the Citizens’ Coalition (KO) did not meet the expectations. However, the distribution of support in the local government elections showed that the actions consolidating the opposition are currently the only chance to fight a leveled electoral fight with Law and Justice (PiS).

10

Authors: Janusz Bojarski, Natalia Daśko

2018 local self-government elections in Poland were special ones. Brought to light mismatching of provisions of the Electoral Code and Act on Local Self-Government Employees and attempt to use it to obtain an advantage in fight for political power caused political emotions and legal controversies. The aim of this article is presents limits imposed by criminal law on right to be elected in this type of elections and more general, role of criminal law as a tool in politics. The article presents a problem of conflict of legal regulations regarding the right to be elected and perform a public function in a local self-government unit as a problem of conflict between will of voters and attitude of politicians to creation of law and aim they try to obtain.

11

Authors: Katarzyna Wojewoda-Buraczyńska

The article herein discusses selected issues of the effectiveness of public governance model at the Province level of self-governance in regard to providing support services to persons with disabilities. Described herein are tasks for carrying out the policy of social inclusion of persons with disabilities that are the responsibility of the Province self-governance. Also described is the method for carrying out the said tasks and the most frequently used model of public governance. Discussed also are the critical challenges and flaws of the said model of public governance. Presented also are some suggestions for changes in regard to the discussed areas. The aim of the article is to analyze province social policy toward people with disabilities. The article also attempts to evaluate the methods used to implement it. The article is based on the analysis of legal acts regarding the social inclusion policy of persons with disabilities at the level of the province, with particular emphasis on the content of province programs on equal opportunities for people with disabilities and counteracting social exclusion and assistance in the implementation of tasks for the employment of disabled people. When writing an article, the dogmatic method was used in the analytical approach. The article proposes a thesis that the collaborative governance model used to implement the social inclusion policy of disabled people at the province level does not ensure sufficient control over the efficiency of using public funds, and thus does not guarantee the effective implementation of public tasks by non-public entities.

12

Authors: Łukasz Święcicki

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.

15

Authors: Marcin Czyżniewski

The article presents the result of quantitative research on local government elections in Poland carried out on October 21 and November 4, 2018. Its goal is to examine the proportions of lists registered by political parties and nonpartisan electoral committees and the mandates they have obtained. This proportion shows the degree of presence of political parties in local governments of various levels and sizes. The data were selected so that all provinces in Poland were examined (16), a number of districts were randomly selected (in provinces with less than 20 districts, data from half districts were examined, in provinces with over 20 districts, from one third). Within the selected districts, all communes were examined. The quantitative research shows that local governments elected in 2018 are not political only in small and medium-sized communes, in which the councils are made up mostly of councilors who were candidates from nonpartisan committees.

19

Authors: Małgorzata Madej

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.