Participatory Urban Governance as an Innovation in Institutional Practice of Polish Cities Cover Image

Participatory Urban Governance as an Innovation in Institutional Practice of Polish Cities
Participatory Urban Governance as an Innovation in Institutional Practice of Polish Cities

Author(s): Aldona Wiktorska-Święcka
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, Civil Society, Governance, Sociology, Rural and urban sociology
Published by: Uniwersytet Ignatianum w Krakowie
Keywords: public governance;cities;participatory urban governance;innovation in governance;Poland;participatory budgeting

Summary/Abstract: The problem examined in the paper is part of a broader reflection on public governance, especially in its territorial dimension. The author focuses mainly on the modernisation of the public sector in Poland and the world with regard to the principles of participatory democracy as evidenced by the practice of urban governance. In particular, the author focuses on one of the tools that stimulate participation, i.e. participatory budgeting, which has recently resulted in a breakthrough trend in institutional practice and which can be regarded as an innovation in public governance. The aim of the paper is to examine the impact of the implementation of participatory budgeting on governance in selected Polish cities. The whole analysis is carried out in the context of normative assumptions and the analysed problem highlights the question of the standards of good public governance, which should be respected at the local level. The paradigm adopted by the author reflects the call for the “right to the city for the citizens,” i.e. an approach whereby cities should develop not only in order to support the economy but also to be able to meet people’s aspirations to a better quality of life.

  • Issue Year: 6/2015
  • Issue No: 16
  • Page Range: 75-108
  • Page Count: 34
  • Language: English