| dc.description.abstract | The text constitutes a voice in the discussion pending in Poland
on the issue of the possibility of deliberative ‘opening’ of public decision-
making processes. In the metaphor used in the title the expression
‘the inclusive methods’ refers to public, participatory decision-making
procedures, ‘an exclusive club’, on the other hand, denotes party-political
and bureaucratic-administrative elites (nota bene in accordance with
the content of the variant of political culture dominating, among others,
in Poland) favouring the top-down model of making decisions. The
exclusive club constitutes a kind of game-trap, which has the powers
of poaching even their most devoted, social opponents – the leaders of
everyday life – into their elitist circle of institutional leaders. This issue
still breaks through with difficulty and remains rather in the background
of the themes dominating in the Polish public debate. At the current
level of Polish democratisation, the mechanisms, the task of which is the
inclusion of the inhabitants into public decision-making processes, are
perhaps not ideal, but they seem sufficient. The main problem seems to
be residing in the fact that generalised knowledge about deliberative
ways of making decisions in this country is still low – and at this stage
it cannot be different due to lack of patterns favouring deliberation in
Polish political and administrative culture. We may say that we deal
with a certain paradox, which is based on the fact that participatory
procedures ‘overtook’ culture changes in Poland, from which (as in
consolidated democracies) they should stem. The completion of this
gap could assist in practising formal solutions by common application
from procedural participatory possibilities. Their low application will
favour, however, the consolidation of discouragement for participation. | en_EN |
