scholarly journals Participatory Budget as a Tool Supporting the Development of Civil Society in Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Jarosław Kempa ◽  
Artur Roland Kozłowski

AbstractAlthough three decades have passed since the fall of communism in Poland, the observed level of social activity in the country is relatively low. Participatory budget emerged as an idea to increase the involvement of citizens in decision-making processes concerning their immediate surroundings. In addition to their inclusion in the activity of local government, this form of citizen participation is expected to have a positive impact on residents’ involvement in activities for the benefit of the local community. The aim of this article is to indicate the conditions that influenced the implementation of the idea of the first participatory budget in Poland and emphasizing the importance of the civic budget in managing public administration through partial decentralization involving local communities in social dialogue for local investment initiatives, especially in large provincial cities in Poland. The following research question was adopted in the paper: has the introduction of a participatory budget in Poland increased social activity and has it been conducive to the development of civil society. In Poland, the initiative to create a civic budget met good political conditions in the relatively small city of Sopot, which had the resources to implement the project. After successful implementation, this initiative was relatively quickly adopted by other Polish local governments, which then on their own introduced social consultations called the civic budget. Not all poviats introduced the civic budget of their own volition. The government, seeing the possibility of political discounting of this new solution, decided to introduce a mandatory participatory budget in town counties and ordered the allocation of funds from their budgets, no less than 1 % of budget expenditure. The article relies on the case-study method, comparative analysis and trend analysis, qualitative and quantitative methods of description, document analysis and statistical data. The analysis focuses on the town of Sopot and provincial capitals. Local conditions are important for understanding the processes of shaping active civic attitudes in Poland, because cities are the poles of development of civil society and give impetus to innovative changes in the entire socio-economic system. The materials used in the article include reports, documents and legal acts regarding the functioning of the town of Sopot.The study showed that the participatory budget indeed activates the local community around various projects. At the same time, the question of directly translating this activity into an increase in the number of organizations, associations and foundations remains debatable. The introduction of the participatory budget to administrative management practice in local-government units in Poland should be considered in terms of the soft power impact of administration on the shaping and development of civil society, which is still in the development stage in Poland.

e-Finanse ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-21
Author(s):  
Beata Zofia Filipiak ◽  
Marek Dylewski

AbstractThe purpose of the article is analysis of participatory budgets as a tool for shaping decisions of local communities on the use of public funds. The authors ask the question of whether the current practice of using the participatory budget is actually a growing trend in local government finances or, after the initial euphoria resulting from participation, society ceased to notice the real possibilities of influencing the directions of public expenditures as an opportunity to legislate public policies implemented. It is expected that the conducted research will allow us to evaluate the participatory budget and indicate whether this tool practically acts as a stimulus for changes in the scope of tasks under public policies. The authors analyzed and evaluated the announced competitions for projects as part of the procedure for elaborating participatory budgeting for selected LGUs. Then, they carried out an in-depth analysis of the data used to assess real social participation in the process of establishing social policies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Constantina Costopoulou ◽  
Maria Ntaliani ◽  
Filotheos Ntalianis

Local governments are increasingly developing electronic participation initiatives, expecting citizen involvement in local community affairs. Our objective was to assess e-participation and the extent of its change in local government in Greece. Using content analysis for 325 Greek municipal websites, we assessed e-participation status in 2017 and 2018 and examined the impact of change between these years. The assessment regards two consecutive years since the adoption of digital technologies by municipalities has been rapid. The main findings show that Greek local governments have made significant small- to medium-scale changes, in order to engage citizens and local societies electronically. We conclude that the integration of advanced digital technologies in municipalities remains underdeveloped. We propose that Greek municipalities need to consider incorporating new technologies, such as mobile apps, social media and big data, as well as e-decision making processes, in order to eliminate those obstacles that hinder citizen engagement in local government. Moreover, the COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the need for enhancing e-participation and policymakers’ coordination through advanced digital technologies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-190
Author(s):  
Agung Nur Probohudono ◽  
Wahyu Widayat ◽  
Siti Arifah

This study refers to the influence of the age of local government, status, number of Regional Device Task Force (SKPD), financial autonomy ratios, effectiveness ratios, local income growth ratios, and the quality of local financial reports that exist in local governments as an independent variable on the compliance of local governments to implement government accounting systems as the dependent variable. Using quantitative methods with secondary data obtained from information on the publication of the Indonesian Financial Audit Agency, the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Indonesia (BPS), and local government reports. The sample used is limited to the municipal and district governments in western Indonesia, which are being evaluated by the Indonesian Financial Audit Agency in the implementation of an accrual base government accounting system of 158 local governments namely 36 cities and 122 districts. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The research is a causality, quantitative research model, and secondary data from local governments throughout Indonesia and secondary data about the compliance of local governments in the application of Government Accounting Standards (SAP) published by the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK). The results of the hypothesis analysis conclude that the status of local government, the ratio of regional government autonomy, and the growth of local revenue significantly influence the compliance of local governments in the implementation of the accrual base government accounting system.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-279
Author(s):  
Prabal Barua ◽  
◽  
Abhijit Mitra ◽  
Saeid Eslamian ◽  
◽  
...  

Although Bangladesh’s immense steps in preparing the disaster management policies following the values of good governance issue, the quantity to which these policies have productively been executing at the local level remnants mostly unknown. The objectives of this investigation were dual: firstly, to inspect the roles and efficiency of the local-level governance and disaster management organization, and lastly, to recognize the obstacles to the execution of national the policies and Disaster-Risk-Reduction guidelines at the local community level. The authors applied qualitative research and case Study approach, using techniques from the Participatory Rural Appraisal toolbox to collect data from local community members as well as government and NGO officials. From the finding of the study, it was revealed that interactive disaster governance, decentralization of disaster management, and compliance by local-level institutions with good governance principles and national policy guidelines can be extremely effective in reducing disaster-loss and damages. According to coastal community members, the local governments have generally failed to uphold good governance principles, and triangulated data confirm that the region at large suffers from rampant corruption, political favoritism, lack of transparency and accountability and minimal inclusion of local inhabitants in decision-making – all of which have severely impeded the successful implementation of national disaster-management policies. This study contributes to these research gaps, with identification of further research agenda in these areas. The paper deals with International Sendai Framework that called for enhancement of local level community resilience to disasters. Thus, it contributes to numerous policy and practice areas relating to good disaster governance. The study identified the specific manifestations of these failures in coastal communities in Bangladesh. These results underscore the vital need to address the wide gap between national DRR goals and the on-the-ground realities of policy implementation to successfully enhance the country’s resilience to climate change-induced disasters.


Yuridika ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Hilda Yunita Sabrie

The cultural heritage of a region is the identity and richness of history for the region. Given the importance of the existence of cultural heritage in an area, the local government should pay special attention to the continuity of its existence. Through inventory, listing the cultural heritages, maintenance until its restoration must be done properly and continuously. This is not only the responsibility of the local government, but it is the responsibility of all parties including the local community. But in practice, local government or society are less concerned about the existence of cultural heritage in the area. This research focuses on cultural heritage buildings in Surabaya because this city is one of the cities in Indonesia which has many buildings of cultural heritage with various conditions. Local governments need to act quickly and effectively to solve the problem, so the solution can be done by including third parties such as insurance companies engaged in the insurance of losses, which can help to cover some form of damage that occurred in the building of the reserve culture in Surabaya. From the problems mentioned above, the research method used is statute approach and conceptual approach.


Author(s):  
Agnieszka Smalec ◽  
Agata Niemczyk ◽  
Renata Seweryn

The independence of territorial self-governments in the process of implementing the tasks imposed on them does not mean that they have to implement them independently. Achieving the assumed goals of action often requires skillful cooperation with other entities, including non- governmental organizations. Local government is the closest partner of non-governmental organizations, not only through action in the local community, but above all through a community of purpose, which is to meet the needs of residents. NGOs represent the local community. The basis for the functioning of the state is social dialogue. The guarantee of successful cooperation between partners is cooperation based, on the one hand, on the awareness of local governments of jointly diagnosing and solving local problems, and on the other ‒ on the awareness of non-governmental organizations to jointly implement their goals. It should be emphasized that territorial self-government ‒ fulfilling statutory tasks and non- governmental organizations (voluntary associations of people devoting their time and energy to achieve social goals) are two different types of entities. Dialogue and cooperation between them should aim to integrate and mobilize entities to improve the quality of life in small homelands. The main goal of the article is therefore to draw attention to the importance of cooperation between territorial self-governments and non-governmental organizations in order to achieve positive results. It emphasizes the principles on which such cooperation should be based. The areas of this cooperation were indicated, giving examples of practices. The work mainly uses the desk research method in the form of literature analysis, reports and exploitation of online resources, as well as case analysis.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jože Benčina ◽  
Srečko Devjak

The paper presents the challenge of establishing a substantial governance framework of local government provision of tasks and services. The assumption that this end is highly dependent on the implementation of total quality management paradigm has led us to base our work on the Common Assessment Framework model. The research discusses the case of pre-school education. The main research question is how the representatives of the municipality, responsible for pre-school education, understand their role and accountability in the process of the provision of local government genuine services and tasks. As the main methodological result of the research is approved that the questionnaire based on the CAF model can help to discover the main opportunities for improvement of governance of genuine local government tasks. The results of the survey on pre-school education show that local governments are in control of financial matters and that their strategic focus is limited to the investment aspect. The accountability for quality management was approved as a key opportunity for improvement of local government governance.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-219
Author(s):  
A A Maksimov

Local government is a form of self-organization of citizens for the purpose of addressing issues of local importance in the interests of the population. Key elements of this process - socially active, concerned the responsibility of local community. Based on the practice of the electoral process, electoral behavior in the municipal elections little activity. Based on the current situation has been suggested that this passivity is caused by the legislative authority disabilities and the population on issues of local importance, especially in terms of his participation in the work of local governments. System formulated proposals to expand the share of participation in the work of local governments, as well as subject to analysis and evaluation of the individual elements of the local government reform in 2014.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Rahmat Salam

The budgeting process is central to every administration be it the central government, local governments and the private sector because financial control is perhaps the most effective coordination tool. The scope and nature of government operations as a whole are determined by the allocations for the various programs. In fact, human nature has never been proven compared to when humans struggle to get a larger than usual share of the funds. This paper examines budgeting at the local government level, its preparation, problems and prospects. The study found that there was a wide gap between the budget plan and its implementation which resulted in the failure to fulfill political promises and the increasingly high expectations of society. The widespread dissatisfaction of the masses with the local government contributed greatly to the slow pace of local community development. This paper makes several recommendations that will reduce the incidence of budget deficits in the Government.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6590
Author(s):  
Scott Dwyer ◽  
Claudine Moutou ◽  
Kriti Nagrath ◽  
Joseph Wyndham ◽  
Lawrence McIntosh ◽  
...  

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption is growing worldwide with increasing market pull from consumers and market push from manufacturers of vehicles and charging equipment, as well as others in the supply chain. Governments have begun developing policies to support EV uptake and local governments, in particular, are examining what role they should play. In Australia, a large country with low population density, EV uptake has been slower in comparison to other similar economies. This paper discusses the status of EV charging infrastructure deployment in Australia with regards to local governments, by considering the extent to which they are relied upon for the deployment of such technology and what motivates them to act. It also covers the work undertaken by the authors with one local government in developing an EV charging infrastructure business model that will help the local community adopt and benefit from EVs. An applied use of the business canvas methodology adapted to suit local government interests is presented to assess the risks and benefits that different business models offer. The paper offers insights into the strategic and pragmatic responsibilities local governments balance in seeking to expand the EV charging infrastructure in their jurisdiction.


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