The importance of the role of local authorities in the shaping of civic participation

Abstract

Civic participation means citizens’ active participation in governance. The need of its development results from the necessity of enrichment and complement traditional mechanisms of representative democracy. Civic participation comprises four categories of engagement in public life: public action, public involvement, electoral participation and obligatory participation. The paper concentrates on public’ involvement, meaning these actions which are initiated and controlled by public authorities. It is assumed that civic participation has the strongest rooting in local environment and should be one of the local government’s constant elements. Institutionalized rules of participation practice are among factors conditioning public activity. They are often optional, therefore their usage and functioning depend on local authorities and by introduction of the principles of local governance. Theoretical assumptions on tools and models of public participation became the basis of the research conducted among local government units. The results show that less than 2% of government units remain on the level of information, further 5% rank on the level of information acquisition and almost 3/4 of the communities reaches the level of consultations. Co-decision appeared in only 8.5% of the communities. The article presents two research assumptions 1) the level of participation depends on the type of the community, and 2) the higher civic participation level the greater development of social participation and entrepreneurship. The results of analysis confirmed these assumptions.