PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING IN DABROWA GORNICZA - A RESEARCH REPORT

Abstract

This article contains the preliminary results of our research on participatory budgeting in Poland. We did it  as part of the research project No. 2019/33/B/HS5/00353 financed by the National Science Center under the OPUS 17 program "Evolution of the participatory budgeting in Poland - towards a deliberation or plebiscite?" The goal of the research was to find out what opinions about participatory budgeting the inhabitants of Dabrowa Gornicza held. In Poland, the participatory budget is called partycypacyjny bużet. The participatory budget is a democratic process in which residents can co-determine public spending in the city in the next fiscal year. In Poland, participatory budgets have been developing for a decade. Until 2018, the decision to introduce a civic budget belonged to local governments. Therefore, although they grew out of one idea, the different variants of budgeting differed among themselves, both in procedural and practical dimensions. In 2018, the law was amended, which introduced the regulation of participatory budgets into the common law.