Abstract:

The study identified and assessed the main directions of the evolution of Polish legal regulations defining the consultation of local communities and enabling, within the framework of a statutory procedure, the preparation of a draft budget of a local government unit, taking into account opinions and postulates regarding the inclusion in it of specific types of expenses that are included in the civic budget (participatory budget). Using the dogmatic and legal, historical and legal as well as empirical methods, the balance of legislative achievements in the field of gradual adaptation of the national legal order to the standards resulting from the European Charter of Local Self-Government in the field of consulting local communities was examined and assessed. It has been shown that the standard adopted in an act of international law is so general and universal that it allows the national legislator to relatively freely and flexibly shape the subjective and objective limits of this right vested in local self-government. In the Polish legal order, this right has materialized, inter alia, in in the legal institution of the civic budget, which, after a period of various social initiatives since the term of office of local government authorities started in 2018, was based on statutory provisions.