Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 20th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Local Government Author(s) Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Lublin Poland Title Exploring the limits of public participation. Lessons from local government in Poland (1990-2010) File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak Abstract The transformation of the system that took place in many CEE countries in 1989/1990 caused the fundamental changes at the local level. The objective of the decentralization reform was to establish strong, autonomous from central control local government. The administrative, fiscal, and political decentralization was supposed to change drastically the role of the central state by providing local authorities with a new set of responsibilities, fiscal resources, and the decision-making power to implement them (Regulska 2009:537). What is more, decentralization became an important element of participatory democracy that had a potential to improve the accountability of local government. In case of Poland the introduction of the wider mechanisms of public participation were one of the proofs of “local independence” as they allowed citizens to make decisions and to be involved in the process of local governance. Gradually traditional forms of participation (elections, referenda, social consultations) were supplemented by the active cooperation of local government units with non-governmental organisations and the informational policy conducted by local administration. Recently some local authorities have started to experiment with new forms of involvement, characteristic of deliberative democracy eg. citizens’ juries, consensus conferences, deliberative forums (McLaverty 2011:406-408). Though, while analysing the level of public engagement after 1990 it seems that the phenomena of the lack of support for actions undertaken by local government is becoming more and more common. The turnout in local elections not only never exceed 50% but in some local units is constantly around 20%. Moreover, the practice applied so far indicates that in some cases elections or referenda are not the way to solve issues crucial for local communities, but rather the institutions by means of which local political elites compete with each other. The aim of the paper is to analyze local participation in Poland (1990-2010). The article poses the following questions: • What are the reasons of the citizens’ disinterestedness and weak engagement in local issues (1990-2010)?; • How can be explained citizens’ apathy in the context of local relations?; Is eg. poor voting turnout a proof of the lack of acceptance of activities and policy conducted by local authorities or are there other reasons? • Does the low level of local participation (and if yes how) result on central-local relations?; The background for the analysis will give local governance and new institutionalism. The theoretical study will be supported by the objective data eg. official statistics in local elections, referenda etc. The expected output of the paper is a diagnosis of public participation during last twenty years and the prospects of its further development.
