Wybrane aspekty rozwoju samorządu lokalnego w Polsce po 1989 roku
Selected Aspects of the Development of Local Government in Poland after 1989

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the main aspects of the development of the local government in Poland in the last 25 years. It presents local government as a school of democracy and a key aspect of local development. The article focuses on the Europeanization of those aspects of local government in Poland associated with the European Union. Local government plays, on the one hand, a very important role in the area of both obtaining and spending EU funds, and on the other it performs a number of tasks associated with the need to adapt to EU standards. It has been emphasized that in Polish conditions, it occupies a special position in the functioning of a civil society at the local level. This is because it is an entity that has been present in local communities for many years, and thus has significant resources of social capital; it can, therefore, more effectively fulfill the tasks normally carried out by non-governmental organizations. The article also highlights the role of local government in the context of the concept of community capacity. At the same time, it emphasizes that Poland is still dominated by a model of functioning local communities closer to management (by local authorities) than to self-governance (understood as civic participation). It also presents in short the forms of direct democracy practiced at the local level – referendums, public consultation and meetings. In the last part, it highlights the positive changes in public awareness with regard to local government, which is related to increased confidence in local authorities and with the gradual increase of the sense of the impact on public affairs at the local level.

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