The concept of improving the quality of life of residents of local government units on the example of the Silesia Metropolis

Abstract

The subject of the author’s deliberations are the most important problems related to the Act of 9 March 2017 on the Metropolitan Union in the Silesian Voivodship, which entered into force on 7 April 2017. It was indispensable to pass it because on the basis of the previous Act of 9 October 2015 on Metropolitan Unions no union was created. Meanwhile, the Upper Silesian agglomeration is a region inhabited by about two million people, consisting of cities characterized by advanced urbanization processes, functionally connected with each other. The subject matter analyzed here cannot be overestimated. The author of this study concentrates on the fundamental legal issues, although he also refers to the achievements of other fields of science, including to concepts developed by praxeology. The author’s conclusion is that the metropolitan union is clearly different from communal unions regulated by the provisions of the Act on municipal self-government and the Act on poviat self-government. It should be noted, moreover, that the interests of individual territorial self-government units within the metropolitan union are often divergent. Time will tell if the further activity of the metropolitan union can be assessed positively or negatively.