Local Government In Poland Research Articles

Podstawy prawne nawiązywania i prowadzenia współpracy międzynarodowej przez jednostki samorządu terytorialnego w Polsce

Reactiving the local government in Poland gave an opportunity to increase the activity of local communities in the international area. The adoption of legal solutions guaranteed the international activity of local government untis through standardized procedures, defined goals and directions of action. A specific suplement are signed international agreements and agreements on cross-border and international cooperation, which are anchored in international treaties. The legal basis for international cooperation of local government units was defined in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of April 2, 1997. The main aim of the article was to define the possibilities of international cooperation of local government units in Poland. European documents supporting international cooperation of territorial units were identified. In addition, Polish legal conditions were identified in the scope of concluding cooperation agreements and belonging to international associations.

Ocena zdolności jednostek samorządu terytorialnego do finansowania projektów inwestycyjnych w perspektywie finansowej 2021–2027

Purpose – The aim of the research is to assess the capacity of Polish local governments to finance investments in the EU 2021–2027 multiannual financial framework. Due to the importance of local governments as public investors, their capacity to finance invest-ments, which are largely development projects, is an important factor in increasing the international competitiveness of the entire country.Research method – The research consists in the construction of a forecasting model and then preparation of cash flow forecasts for all local governments in Poland. Four forecast scenarios made it possible to estimate the impact of changes in individual assumptions on the size of the investment capacity of local governments.Results – Forecasts indicate some symptoms of the local government finance crisis and the risk of its aggravation. Maintaining a faster growth rate of current expenditure than cur-rent revenue, with investment needs resulting, inter alia, from the necessity to absorb the EU funds, will lead to an unprecedented increase in debt. This relates primarily to poviat -cities responsible for the implementation of a significant part of public development projects. Originality / value / implications / recommendations – The study was based on the authors’ method of forecasting financial processes in each local government (excluding voivodships). Its results allow the formulation of important conclusions. It was shown that in the case of a large number of local governments, the implementation of investments at the current level will be possible only on condition of a significant reduction in the growth of current expenditures. However, with regard to cities with poviat rights, it may be necessary to change the financing system itself.

Financing framework for local governments: diagnosis and change proposals

Motivation: The best way to widen access to public services at the local level is to increase efficiency of local government spending. However, an increase in efficiency may refer to output or inputs. In the latter case it does not widen access to public services. Moreover, factors conducive to spending efficiency may be detrimental to local cohesion. Finding a way so that the financing framework for local governments would reconcile the efficiency condition with the conditions of access to public services and local cohesion respectively, is an issue of great importance for economic policy. It seems to be so especially in a country like Poland, where there are large differences in the level of development between regions for historical reasons. These differences, if left accumulating, could easily jeopardize efficiency due to distorted capital flows, not to mention political tensions they may cause.
 Aim: The article aims at identifying basic features of the financing framework for local governments in Poland that hinder efficiency of their spending and at proposing feasible changes to that framework that would improve the efficiency but not at the expense of local cohesion or access to public services.
 Results: The article argues that the financing framework of local governments in Poland would better meet conditions of both efficiency and access to public services, if local governments relied mostly on revenues from income taxes instead of transfers from the central government, and some elements of tax competition between local authorities, although restricted to PIT-free allowance, were introduced. Such a shift in local governments revenue composition would not weaken local cohesion, if it was accompanied by an appropriate solidarity subvention financed by the richest voivodeship and the central government, and non-recurring central government revenues were allocated to investments exceeding financial capacity of local governments.

Wpływ Konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 17 marca 1921 r. na kształtowanie się samorządu terytorialnego w II Rzeczypospolitej

The Impact of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of March 17, 1921 on the Formation of Local Governments in the Second Polish Republic This article was written in connection with the 100th anniversary of the enactment of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 17 March 1921 (the March Constitution). First, it presents the systemic assumptions of the Constitution, relating to local government, and then shows its impact on the formation of local governments in the Second Polish Republic. It describes the challenges and difficulties that accompanied attempts to pass local government laws in line with the spirit of the March Constitution. It presents an outline is given of the legal bases for the organisation of local governments in Poland and their activities during the entire interwar period (1918–1939). It also draws attention to changes in approach that those in power took towards the role of local government which followed the May coup in 1926 and were introduced in the Act of 23 March 1933 on the partial change of the local government system, and in the Constitution of 23 April 1935 (the April Constitution).

Restitution of local government in Poland in the 1990s. Social perception of administrative reforms

One of the most important steps in the transition from the so-called “real socialism” to democracy was the process of administrative decentralization. In less than ten years, after the “round table” agreements, Polish parliament was able to introduce reforms that changed the structure of local governments. It created three tiers of self-governments and provided redistribution of authority, responsibility, tasks and competences between the government (and their institutions) and local governments. The first aim of the article is to present this process and indicate crucial decisions and actions made by Polish parliament. The second part of the article is mainly based on the results of a research made by CBOS and non-governmental organizations. The data shows how the local government has been perceived during the last two decades by Poles, it brings the information about a sense of influence on local affairs, the importance of local elections, trust in local authorities, belief in the influence of local authorities on local development, perception of the role and autonomy of local authorities. The second part of the article also contains secondary analysis of data on voting turnout in Polish local elections.

Bottom-Up Initiatives Undertaken by Local Governments to Support Entrepreneurship

The present paper deals with issues related to activities undertaken by local government. The article focuses on the identification and assessment of the significance of local government’s different bottom-up initiatives that support development of local entrepreneurship. The article also indirectly discusses the importance of activities referring to energy efficiency. Through the digitization process and by using digital tools, LGs realize projects, improve local actors’ awareness, and finally achieve new challenges such as a higher proportion of gross final energy consumption being from renewable sources. The aim of the paper is to present the relationship between the LGs’ entrepreneurial activities, which we call bottom-up initiatives, and the local entrepreneurship level, understood as the number of entrepreneurs active on the territory of a LG. This paper presents the results of research carried out on the bottom-up initiatives undertaken by Polish local governments to support entrepreneurship. The research was based on survey and statistical tools and stepwise regression analysis. In the paper, bottom-up initiatives undertaken by local governments (such as organizing events at the national or regional scale that enable networking among entrepreneurs or establishing departments for supporting local entrepreneurship that offer cooperation with local entrepreneurs) were found to influence the number of entrepreneurs active in local government territories. The paper concludes that local governments and their bottom-up activities are an important factor influencing local entrepreneurship development. The presented research results have implications for policy makers and may be useful for local governments in Poland and in other countries in the context of supporting entrepreneurship by undertaking bottom-up initiatives at the local level.

The diversity and spatial polarisation of own incomes of the Polish gminas

Own incomes are considered one of the most important sources of financing for local governments in Poland. Although own incomes have been the subject of numerous analyses, extensive research focusing on their spatial aspect is rarely conducted. This article aims to identify the changes in the spatial diversification and polarisation of gminas (communes’) own incomes. Data from the Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland, the National Bank of Poland and the World Bank were used. The analysis covered the years 1995–2019. The study used the global spatial autocorrelation coefficient and the LISA method to identify the process of spatial dependence and to determine the degree of spatial polarisation. The Gini coefficient was applied to assess the level of diversity. The results of the analysis confirmed that an increasing spatial autocorrelation occurred in the studied period, leading to the spatial polarisation of the Polish gminas in terms of their own incomes. Gminas with a high level of own income formed spatial clusters within large urban agglomerations, in regions where natural resources were exploited, along the western border and the coastal belt. The findings show that the area of these clusters was expanding. On the other hand, low-own-income gminas were located in eastern and south-eastern Poland. The analysis has not confirmed that the dynamics of the gross domestic product or the level of inequality in gminas’ own income per capita had any effect on the changes in the spatial autocorrelation coefficient, nor, consequently, on the process of spatial polarisation.

Challenges for local government in Poland

Local government is the key principle of the organisation of public administration in Poland. Local government units, i.e., gminas, powiats and voivodeships local governments, are entities endowed with rights and obligations and entities performing public tasks. They can be defined as independent, legally constituted, corporations of local society, with their own internal organisation, equipped with the attribute of legal personality, subject to supervision by the state to the extent prescribed by law.

Renewable Energy Attitudes and Behaviour of Local Governments in Poland

The deployment of renewable energy at the local level can contribute significantly to mitigating climate change, improving energy security and increasing social, economic and environmental benefits. In many countries local authorities play an important role in the local development, but renewable energy deployment is not an obligatory task for them. Hence there are two research questions: (1) Do local governments think investments in renewable energy (RE) are urgent and affordable within the local budgets? (2) How do they react to the public aid co-financing investments in renewable energy? To provide the answer we performed qualitative analysis and non-parametric tests of data from a survey of 252 local authorities, analysis of 292 strategies of local development and datasets of 1170 renewable energy projects co-financed by EU funds under operational programs 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 in Poland. Findings showed that local authorities’ attitudes were rather careful, caused by financial constraints of local budgets and the scope of obligatory tasks, which made renewable energy investments not the most urgent. Public aid was a factor significantly affecting local authorities’ behavior. It triggered local authorities’ renewable energy initiatives, increasing the number and scope of renewable energy investments as well cooperation with other municipalities and local communities. Despite this general trend, there were also considerable regional differences in local authorities’ renewable energy behavior.

Development of Innovation Economy - Activity of Local Government in Poland

Purpose: The paper aimed to check the activities of local governments contributing to the development of the innovation economy in Poland as well as to find the answer to the questions if local governments both support innovations, as well as implement innovations themselves. Moreover, the purpose of the paper was to find out if activities of local governments depend on their type (rural, urban, urban-rural) or not? Approach/Methodology/Design: In order to achieve that the method of desk research, quantitative and qualitative research were used. The first part of the research was based on a literature review and the second concerned the development of the survey questionnaire based on the literature review. The questionnaire survey was developed and the whole population (2479) of local governments in Poland, was investigated, in early - using the CAWI method. Findings: We have got the answers from 453 local governments. The conducted analysis showed what kind of innovation is undertaken by Polish local governments frequently, we also find out what kind of activities they undertake to increase the innovation economy. Practical Implications: LGUs should continue implementing the innovations resulting from ICT infrastructure and e-government at local level development. Both the world trends as well as last pandemic time confirmed the need of boosting innovations in this area. Secondly, the LG authorities should cooperate with business actors, coming from the other public sector, academia, and civil society. Originality/Value: The research has enabled to develop a conceptual understanding of the relationship between local government and innovative activities.

Education Financing: Explaining the Expenditure Concentration Gap between the State and Local Governments in Poland 2008-2019

Purpose: The aim of this article is to explain the differences between the educational expenses of municipalities and cities in Poland and the educational subvention received by them from the state budget, in particular the scale of the violation of the actual educational expenses of municipalities and cities by their original structure as a result of aggregated decisions of local authorities. Design/Methodology/Approach: The concentration degree of educational expenditure and subvention streams using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), for 2008-2019 from the database of the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office has been used. Findings: The educational subvention was universal (nationwide), which is evidenced by the low degree of its concentration for all the studied groups of entities, the highest HHI values for educational expenses were recorded in the cities with county rights in terms of expenses on subsidies, property expenses, expenses on materials and services, as well as total expenses, and the higher degree of concentration of these expenditures as measured by the HHI results from uncoordinated financial decisions of the cities authorities concerning expenditures on education, disturbing the universal character of the nationwide educational subvention in aggregate were observed. Recommendations: There is a need for systemic actions of central and local authorities to reduce the level of imbalance in financing education by local governments. Practical Implications: for the empirical identification of determinants of the educational expenditure and subvention level of municipalities as a starting point for a discussion on the actual scale of financial responsibility for education in Poland. Originality/Value: To estimate the concentration gap between educational expenditure and subvention for groups of entities under study, local governments, municipalities and cities.

Electronic Document Management System as an IT tool for processing accounting e-documents in Polish local government

Purpose: This paper explores the level of use of Electronic Document Management Sys-tems (EDMSs) to process electronic accounting documents in local government in Poland, as well as the kind of basic activities related to electronic accounting documents that are supported in EDMSs. Registering electronic accounting documents in an EDMS is a vital step towards e-accounting because the automation of the processes related to registering accounting documents in accounting software is possible only when the accounting docu-ments are electronic, i.e. in the form of a structured XML file. Methodology/approach: Survey research was conducted among local government units (LGUs) in Poland to examine whether they use EDMSs to support accounting work related to the handling of electronic accounting documents. One thousand, five hundred and forty-nine units were examined, which is approx. 57% of the total population. The study is qualitative in nature. Findings: The results showed that the Polish local government is poorly prepared to regis-ter electronic accounting documents in EDMSs. Of the 1,594 units examined, 1,058 use an EDMS and 536 have not yet implemented one, which means that these LGUs are not at all prepared for electronic communication, including registration of electronic accounting doc-uments. Of those units already using an EDMS (1058), 685 use it to register electronic accounting documents, while 373 do not use it for this purpose. Research limitations/implications: The limitation of the study is that despite the rela-tively large number of LGUs surveyed, the qualitative study does not allow for the general-isation of the results for the entire population. Practical implications: The study will be of interest to all those who plan to automate accounting processes based on loading metadata to the accounting software directly from electronic accounting documents in the form of XML files. Even though the empirical study covered only Polish LGUs, the issues related to IT applications used to develop e-accounting documents will also be of interest to local governments of other EU Member States, as the regu-lations and principles mentioned in the study have entered into force in all Member States. Originality/value: The originality of the study lies in the fact that e-accounting, e-documents, and e-signature are relatively young phenomena, so this study may be one of the voices in the future discussion on this topic. The originality and value of the study lie in the attempt to approximate the degree of current EDMS use to process electronic accounting docu-ments in local governments and the plans for implementing an EDMS in those local gov-ernments that do not yet use one in their activities. This will allow us to predict and assess the state of development of Accounting Information Systems (AIS).

Green economy – growth and maintenance of the conditions of green growth at the level of polish local authorities

Coal is the central energy resource in Poland, and air pollution levels in cities in Poland are some of the highest in Europe. Environmental protection problems are among the greatest challenges for the Polish authorities and society. As of today, there is a risk of temperatures rising 1.5 °C before 2050; this rise in temperature is leading to the intensification of changes that are unfavorable for people, such as weather disasters. The aim of this article was to analyze the scale of necessary sustainable investments of the local governments in Poland, with particular emphases on the role of cities, the current structural gaps and the financial mismatches. The focus was mainly on the adaptation and mitigation aspects of climate change, with less emphasis on social factors. The results indicated an increasing need for green and/or sustainable investments by local governments. A number of barriers to accessing new forms of sustainable finance were identified. The most important hurdles included low involvement of the private sector in local government financing, regulatory and fiscal barriers, and the inability of local governments to provide effective currency hedging. The need for new mechanisms to help local governments through guarantees or innovative instruments and potentially through new institutions or facilities was demonstrated.

Local government in Poland in the light of climate policy challenges

Achievement of climate goals adopted at the EU level requires the widest possible involvement of local government units, in particular cities responsible for a significant part of greenhouse gas emissions. For over a decade, the EC has been taking steps to better manage the scale of the EU member states’ climate efforts at the local level through the use of so-called instruments of soft regulation. These actions, aimed at putting pressure on the governments of the EU member states to mobilize them to take more ambitious actions in the field of climate protection, lead to the creation of new informal instruments supporting implementation of the EU legislation. The article discusses this phenomenon on the example of the Covenant of Mayors operating since 2008.

Role of EU Funds in Financing the Activity of a Local Government in Poland from 2011 to 2020

Purpose: The aim of the article is to present benefits and consequences of the use of EU funds by a local government in Poland. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper uses the regulatory analysis method and the statistical descriptive method. This article is the result of a broad research conducted in Poland in 2020. Findings: Based on the results of empirical research, the article shows that one of the sources of financing a developmental activity of a local government are EU funds. Poland benefitted from these sources even before the pre-accession period, but the wide access to EU money occurred after 2004 when Poland joined the European Union. Then, it was possible to reach EU funds at the much larger scale to finance and co-finance programmes and projects aiming at the reduction of disparities between individual states and regions of the European Union. Practical Implications: Poland’s accession into the European Union enabled the local government units to obtain financial resources for the developmental activity. The LGU obtained access to non-repayable sources of financing the EU programmes and projects. However, obtaining these resources requires incurring own expenditures i.e., co-financing the EU projects. In the meantime, the surpluses of the current incomes over the current expenditures are not able to secure the own contribution of the LGU. Thus, the local government generally has two options; it should either resign from applying for the EU funds or secure the contribution with their own external financial sources i.e., credits, loans, or issuance of securities. The latter solution relates to indebtedness of the local government. Originality/Value: Considering that the inflow of the funds from the budget of the European Union is an extremely important and cheap source of financing development (which is likely to be limited for Poland in next perspectives), it seems that systematic targeted subsidies for investment should be planned in the state budget or low-interest loans for investments, for the LGU, securing them their own contribution.

Communication Management within Community Relations by Local Governments in Poland

Purpose: The authors show the essence of communication management as part of public relations activities, carried out by specific market entities, such as local government units. Design/Approach/Methodology: This article is the result of a broad, although regional, research conducted in Poland in 2020. Findings: Based on the results of empirical research, the article shows the purposefulness and legitimacy of actions taken by Polish local governments in the field of communication with the market environment, in the context of the impact of community relations. Practical Implications: Local government units with activities referred to as territorial marketing are among the numerous spheres of social life in which the marketing method of management is revealed.

Wydajność fiskalna podatków lokalnych, jej uwarunkowania i przestrzenne zróżnicowanie w Polsce

The article focuses on the fiscal efficiency of local taxes which in Poland are levies on wealth, i.e., real estate tax, means of transport tax, agricultural tax and forestry tax. The author discusses the determinants of fiscal efficiency of local taxes. Special attention is given to the analysis and assessment of fiscal importance of these taxes for municipalities and cities with powiat status, and to the role of public revenues for local government budgets. The author also compares fiscal efficiency of local taxes from the point of view of various types of their recipients and different levels of local government in Poland.

Zadania obronne realizowane przez samorządy terytorialne w Polsce

This article is an attempt to identify defensive tasks performed at individual levels of territorial self-government in Poland. Defense tasks are implemented within the State Defense System, which is a subsystem of the National Security System (NSS). Therefore, the article indicates the location of the Defense System in the National Security System, the structure of NSS and the mission of its individual subsystems. The author also presents the functioning of territorial self-government in Poland and specifies tasks implemented by territorial self-government. The subject of the research are defense tasks implemented by local governments in Poland, and the aim is an attempt to identify defense tasks performed at individual levels of local government. The following theoretical research methods were used: analysis, synthesis, abstraction and inference.

Financial Condition of Local Government in Poland vs StructuralReforms of Municipal Government in Scandinavian States

The authors have undertaken an analysis of the phenomenon of debt of local government units in Poland. It is a dynamic phenomenon, which affects vast majority of municipalities and districts. A barrier to debt expansion has been established in the form of the Individual Debt Index (IOI), which has been in place since 2014 and its new elements entered into force on 1 January 2020. The structure of the index is intended to allow regional accounting chambers (RIO) to control the process and prevent its progression. The authors indicate, however, that the main problem for local self-government units is insufficient own income, which forces them to increase the pool of funds transferred from the central budget to self-governments in the form of grants and subventions and to look for various forms of loans for their activities. Using the experience of the Scandinavian countries, the authors propose to start territorial and resource consolidation reforms of small local government units – municipalities and districts. The aim is to facilitate better use of endogenous resources of territorial self-government units and use of economies of scale related to local economy and social resources. This should result, as in Scandinavia, in the development of public entrepreneurship, higher social efficiency and effectiveness, and stabilisation of the income of individual units. After more than 20 years of operation, small local government units in Poland have become structurally and functionally obsolete and do not guarantee modern development of local communities.

Samorząd terytorialny – 30 lat doświadczeń samorządu (gminnego) w Polsce

The article is an attempt to summarise the achievements of local government in Poland reactivated in 1990, and the topics discussed in the article focus on development and functioning since 1808 Prussian urban reform, which is the organisational model for contemporary local government units in Europe. Much of the article is also devoted to the functioning of Polish local governments in the 1990s and early 2000s, preceding Poland’s accession to the European Union. The issue of the use of pre-accession funds and funds available after 2004 by local governments, which had a significant impact on infrastructure investments in Polish communes, districts and voivodship, was discussed in detail. On the basis of available reports, the article also presents an assessment of the achievements of local government in Poland over thirty years, with its successes and failures. The author also refers to the possibility of using this legacy by local governments of neighbouring countries aspiring to EU membership, mainly Ukraine.