Territorial self-government in sociologists’ eyes – a discussion

Abstract

The last elections in Poland have substantially changed the political discourse. The new government has started to implement numerous reforms. Many of them aroused great controversy, including the one introducing changes in the local government system. This discussion can be considered as an invitation to broader considerations on the future of local government in Poland. It contains statements of six sociologists who are professionally interested in local government issues. They were inspired by three questions (asked by the editors of the text) about: (i) the possible outcome of the reform of the territorial self-government (ii) the functioning of the territorial self-government (iii) the evaluation of the discussion on the announced changes. The answers to these questions were based on the research knowledge and research experiences of the respondents and are therefore more science-based that general opinions typical for a public discussion which often manifest the worldview (or political attitudes) of the debating parties.