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.