Models of Neighbourhood Governance: Case of Poland

Polish legal regulations allow cites to create the sub-municipal units. As the Act on Local Self-Government defines it very generally, the cities have autonomy to divide their territories and to create the additional organs in them. How they are shaped fully depends on the city authorities and their approach. Therefore the models of neighbourhood governance in Poland vary in different cities. The paper presents the results of research made in 66 Polish county cities, in which it was investigated if the system of neighbourhood governance was implemented (or not) and what types of units do the cities create (small number of bigger districts, or big number of smaller neighbourhoods). It was investigated and compared how these structures are shaped: the local councils and boards, as executives and modes of their elections. Another point of the analysis were tasks and competences devolved to this level, and related to this, the legal tools which can be used by the local councils and bords to execute their tasks. The amount of financial means given to the neighbourhood authorities and in what mode they can be spent, were also examined and compared, as in this aspect cities implement various policies. Therefore the question was answered to what extend Polish cities create similar systems of neighbourhood governance and to what they differ. For this purpose Polish forms of neighbourhood governance were confronted with the ideal types proposed by Lowndes and Sullivan (2007) and it was examined which cities can be categorized as those which realize neighbourhood empowerment, partnership, and which ones realize neighbourhood government, or management. This will be supplemented with the proposal of the new typology of the neighbourhood governance which bases on Polish experiences where three alternative models were created. Firstly, the devolved local government, in which neighbourhoods have their own part in the city budget, office with professional administration, make binding decisions and provide public services. Second is the intermediate model in which neighbourhood organs get significant budget to spend, and limited independent decisions to make, but there is no professional neighbourhood administration and service provision. Third type is the participatory model in which the neighbourhood bodies are tools of public participation, where the members work voluntarily (in some cases with small diet) and neighbourhood role is deliberative and consulting, and in fact they have only supplementary functions, as no tasks are devolved to this level. Out of 66 Polish cities only 46 implemented the means of neighbourhood governance. Two cities – Warsaw and Zielona Góra have a devolved local government system, in which districts were created with wide catalogue of tasks and professional administration. Cracow, Poznań and Gdynia implemented the intermediate system in which the local councils deal with wide range of issues and have a significant budget. The rest of the cities implemented the participative model in which the neighbourhood bords and councils have consultative and supplementary role. Their tasks are to consult, apply and give opinions and not to make binding decisions.