Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 29th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG6: Evidence-Based Public Policy Making (Physical) Author(s) Monika Sidor Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Lublin Poland Title Municipal councilors - local politicians or local social activists File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Monika Sidor Abstract In Poland, councilors and mayor are elected in direct elections. Councilors form a council, which is a decision-making and controlling body for the actions of mayor. However, the position of the two bodies is not the same. The main role of the local leader is played by the mayor, who is also the official superior of the employees of the municipal office and organizational units of the municipality. The municipal office is his workplace too. In turn, councilors do not receive salaries for fulfilling duties related to the exercise of the mandate. They perform their function socially, and the equivalent for their work is diet. However, taking into account the study conducted by J.J. Wiatr - there are four categories of people exercising local authority: 1) mayor, his deputy (deputies), secretary of the municipality, directors of office departments; 2) politicians sitting in the municipal council, including the chairman of the council, individual heads of the committees, influential councilors, it can be added that the heads of the clubs; 3) leaders of major political parties and 4) local entrepreneurs. This means that councilors play an important role in local politics. It becomes even stronger when they belong to a political party. However, the question arises whether it does not depend on the type of municipality. The smaller municipalities (especial rural), the less importance of the councilors. Conversely, the larger the municipalities (city), the stronger their position is because of their party affiliation. The aim of the article is to verify this research hypothesis. Another question is whether the councilors have a significant influence on the decision making and creation of local policy in the municipality. In the theoretical part of the article, the descriptive and institutional-analytical methods will be used. In the empirical part, the author of the article will base her own research on coabitation of municipalities in 2014-2017 and in-depth interviews conducted in 2019-2020.
