Partycypacja obywatelska jako utopijna wizja samorządzenia społeczności lokalnych… – na przykładzie miasta Krakowa

Abstract

Civic participation is a term used to describe the participation of the citizens in making
and realizing decisions by the public government and administration. Civic participation
can take many forms, which in theory include different degrees of citizens’ engagement
in decision making: informing, consulting, co-deciding. The catalogue of participation
techniques includes, based on the example of Krakow, many ways of civic participation, e.g.:
local referendum, civic budget and participatory planning and designing. The examples of
participatory activities in the city of Krakow listed in this article exemplify serious problems
with the effective realization of this form of governing. It is especially important in the context
of the emerging postulates of replacing the traditional model of finances management of
a territorial self government unit with a mechanism based on the civic participation and
direct democracy. The idea in which the municipality budget is constructed by the way of
democratic discussion, in which every citizen can decide on what part of the public money is
spent, belongs to the sphere of the impossible to realize utopia.
Key words: civic participation, civic budget, Krakow self-government