This study examines the theoretical contributions of Masayasu Narumi, who served as a policy advisor to Mayor Ichio Asukata of Yokohama. He formulated influential ideas on local autonomy and local public finance. Despite his central role in shaping the theory of reformist local governments,Narumi’s theoretical contributions have not been sufficiently clarified. His work is characterized by its practical orientation, grounded in municipal reform and citizen participation, as well as its historical consciousness in addressing challenges and prospects for local governance. In the context of the 1980s “era of local autonomy,” when the essence of progressive local governments was under critical scrutiny, Narumi advanced a new paradigm such as a “policy-making government” or “citizens’ government.” In his theory of local public finance, Narumi conceptualized local autonomy and local public finance as integrated activities. He argued that the realization of reform and policy within a“ citizens’ government” required a decentralized administrative and fiscal structure between the central and local governments. His formulation of a“ decentralization-oriented fiscal theory” anticipated later debates on local choice and fiscal responsibility. As contemporary Japan again confronts the necessity of municipal reform, Narumi’s pioneering insights into participation, decentralization, and autonomy warrant renewed scholarly attention.
Abstract This article addresses the issue of e-voting in commercial companies in Poland from the perspective of the company’s shareholders. It presents this issue as an example of digital democracy and discusses the associated challenges and opportunities. The article is based on the dogmatic-legal and the comparative-legal methods. The main aim is to examine whether regulations regarding e-voting by shareholders on the resolutions of commercial companies in Poland have improved the conduct of shareholder voting or have established barriers that complicate this process. The second research issue is an attempt to answer the question of whether regulations introduced by the Polish legislature enable the use of modern technologies for conducting voting, including systems based on distributed ledger technology and virtual worlds. The research allowed for the formulation of the following research theses: firstly, the regulations contained in the Polish Commercial Companies Code allow for the widespread use of electronic voting methods by shareholders when resolutions are adopted. However, they are not available in all commercial companies, nor to the same extent. Secondly, voting using methods based on distributed ledger technology is also permissible. However, voting at a meeting cannot be conducted solely virtually. The conclusions include proposals for clarification of the legal provisions in this area, which will enable more effective use of e-voting in commercial companies in Poland.
The principle of financial independence is particularly linked to one of the budgetary principles, i.e. the principle of material unity. The article aims to describe the principles of financial independence and the principle of material unity in the financing of municipalities. To obtain this objectives, we focus on explaining the essence and goals of the principles of financial independence and the principles of material unity, as well as on exceptions to the principles of unity. The article bases on the dogmatic and legal method. The presented considerations lead to the conclusion that the introduction of many sources of exceptions to the principles of material unity results from additional regulatory arbitrariness, limiting decentralization and management independence.
The local government has the right and the ability to regulate and administer an essential part of public affairs under their responsibility and in the interest of the community and the right to plan, finance and organize the exercise of a function.One of the main aspects is the support of local government in finding possible solutions for the financing and implementation of capital investment projects, also through policy improvements at the local level advocated by local government associations.In our legal framework, it is provided that the financing of the local self-government units is made from the revenues provided by taxes, fees and other local revenues, from funds transferred from the State Budget and funds that come directly from the allocation of taxes and national taxes, local borrowing, donations, as well as other sources provided for in the law.On the other hand, this paper will highlight the importance of implementing the principle of equality from the central to the local level, so that the latter can fulfill its functions where one of these functions is the expansion of financing sources.The implementation of local government investment projects depends on their ability to find the necessary funds by combining their own resources and external financing.Debt financing enables municipalities to carry out more infrastructure projects in a short period of time compared to financing from their own funds.
Abstract The article analyzes the specifics of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the public finance system, taking into account the key problems of the theory of fiscal federalism. The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of the pandemic crisis on the fiscal relations taking place between different levels of public authority ( intergovernmental relations – IGR ), considered in the context of the decentralization of the public finance system and the associated distribution of public functions and resources. The article refers to the model features of these relationships, as defined in the theory of fiscal federalism. It also examined the responses of European countries to the negative effects of the COVID-19 crisis, taken within the framework of the IGR, in order to limit the negative effects of the pandemic at different stages. An attempt was also made to answer the question of how the current pandemic crisis may change the multilevel governance (MLG) patterns set forth in the doctrine. The Polish public finance system was used as an example for detailed analysis in this regard.
Artyku powicony jest zagadnieniu bitcoina na paszczynie cywilnoprawnej. Podjto w nim rozwaania de lege lata w wskim zakresie zarwno prawa cywilnego, jak i rodzinnego odnonie do problematyki dotyczcej moliwoci podziau
The economic and civic development of local communities is based, first of all, on the local public finance system, which must meet certain conditions so that the management of the territorial administrative units and the functioning of the local authorities meet the standards of a quasi-society. This paper is topical as the issue of local public finances is at the center of the current political debate as all the member states of the Council of Europe are confronted with the issue of harmonizing two diverging trends, namely: controlling and reducing spending and giving as much as possible large autonomies of local communities. The main objective of the paper is to identify solutions to ensure a more balanced allocation of financial resources between different levels of administrative organization, taking into account the budgetary regulation that is imposed at all levels of public administration. The data processing provided by the Ministry of Public Finance and the Court of Accounts highlighted the degree of dependence of local budgets of communes, cities, municipalities and counties on the consolidated general budget in the context of a decentralized process that is desirable to be as efficient as possible.
Local government reform has been acknowledged to be one of the biggest successes of political transformation in Poland. Municipalities (gminy) gained strong powers and are now responsible for many public services of crucial importance to local communities. The districts (powiaty) and provinces (województwa) were also given important competences in the fields of public services and the responsibility for their development. Their autonomy is guarded by legal, institutional and financial guarantees and strong local leaders. The carefully designed institutional framework of local and regional government seemed to be permanent and durable, guaranteeing strong decentralization and providing local and provincial authorities with substantial decision-making powers and responsibilities for a vast majority of public services.Such a broad field for the functioning of the local government does not remain without interpretation problems. The consecutive central governments were finding common ground in their instrumental approach to local authorities' independence. It was convenient for the state to decentralize problems and challenges, while keeping control over finance and other resources, as well as looking for ways to increase supervisory powers over local government. Almost 30 years after the reintroduction of territorial self-government in Poland, it is expected to be well rooted in the constitutional system of Poland, but is it really so?
The article deals with questions about the rules of effective, efficient and rational management through the results of marketing communications of administrative units of local self-government. The authors point to the Polish experience in this area with regard to systemic transformation since 1990, based on the decentralization of power and the effective dismissal of social potential, by focusing marketing communications of local governments on activating citizens to take action and ensure citizens' responsibility for the environment. These changes set new tasks for local governments, the proper implementation of which should be based on the implementation of management through the results that can be identified in local government bodies as a process of setting measurable goals for the administration responsible for specific public tasks. implementation of the mechanism of continuous monitoring of these goals, as well as the adaptation mechanism in the context of changes in the internal and external conditions of the organization and informing the public about the results achieved. The results management is based on modern tools used in public finance management, that is, budget execution and management. In order to improve the activities of local self-government bodies, the authors offer lifelong learning in the form of short forms of support (training, courses, seminars) in the process of non-formal learning, taking into account the educational prerequisites for sustainable development. The authors recommend short forms of acquiring new competencies required by the changing environment, challenges related to technological changes and increasing efficiency of market institutions (enterprises), indicating that non-formal education in the field of results management, combining economic, social and ecological aspects is an indispensable element improving the staff of local government administration, aimed at the proper implementation of statutory tasks and competent service of the local community while at the same time rational and effective use of public funds, and thus an essential element of sustainable city management. New management tools implementation combined with the education process can be treated as organisational innovation.
Open access
Polish socio-economic development
Local Governance and Planning
Sustainable Development and Environmental Management
The paper is dedicated to the analysis the financing situation and level of decentralization in the municipalities in Poland and Turkey. The analysis covers years 2012–2016. Due to decentralisation reforms in both countries the basic level of subnational governments are municipalities. The decentralization process includes three categories: political, administrative, and fiscal. Because of above the municipalities in Poland and Turkey are various with the number of units, average municipal area, average municipality size, sources of the revenues and directions of money spending.
In last thirty years Poland has gone a long way toward democracy and decentralization. Role of public participation in planning is increasing rapidly and recently many new instruments of empowering the community is being introduced, participatory budgeting is one of the most important. On the other hand, urban regeneration is one of the most important challenges of polish cities are facing. Technical and transport infrastructure investments are, in most cases, financed by public sphere. We can also observe increasing role of NGO's in neighbourhood regeneration process but their scope of actions is mostly limited to soft projects. The paper tries to answer the question whether participatory budget can fill this gap and be a source of financing local community needs. This paper shows the creation and evolution of participatory budgets in Poland as well as the process of their implementation including examples of projects financed from participatory budget in Polish cities. It consists of analyses of participatory budgets’ expenditures structure and influence of the projects on the neighbourhood and the city. It also assesses long term influence and identify barriers, challenges and opportunities of using this instrument in urban regeneration process.
Following the completion of the process of decentralization of the public administration in Poland in 2003, a number of tasks implemented so far by the state authorities were transferred to the local level. One of the most significant changes in the methods of financing and management of the local authorities was the transfer of culture and national heritage-related tasks to a group of the own tasks implemented by local governments. As a result of the decentralization process, the local government units in Poland were given a significant autonomy in determining the purposes of their budgetary expenditure on culture. At the same time they were obliged to cover these expenses from their own revenue. This paper focuses on the analysis of expenditure on culture covered by the provincial budgets, taking into consideration the structure of cultural institutions by their types in the years 2003, 2006, 2010 and 2012. To illustrate the diversity of the expenditure on culture by the type of the institutions in particular provinces, one applied the location quotient (LQ), which reflects a spatial distribution of expenditure on culture in relation to reference expenses incurred by the cultural institutions in Poland.
Decentralization of public finance in Poland was an important element of changes in the political system of the country. As a result, some tasks of the state were transferred to the local government level. The Public Finance Act of 2009 introduced new public management methods, such as the performance-based budget and the long-term financial forecast, to the local government finance management. The purpose of this paper was to analyse the budget expenses on cultural tasks incurred by local government units in Poland in the years 2003- 2010 and the impact of the attempted application of the performance budgeting method to local government expenses relating to this field of economy.
Describing the process of public sector decentralization is a aim of the article. Increasing the responsibility and competence of local government units is aimed at a taken of decentralization process of the sector of the public finance. Thanks to granted competence, the local authority together with the community take decisions concerning the path of the development of given local government unit. In the article tasks and competence of government units on different level were discussed. Also critically, issues connected with financial resources of local government units and the connection of these resources with the expenses side were presented.
In recent years, the problem of reforming governmental systems has been a major issue facing Poland. This paper outlines the challenges of reforming Poland's public finance system, concentrating on the financial aspects of reform. Due to the constraints of public funding and efforts to diminish the total tax burden, reform is difficult. Yet, change in the redistribution of public revenues is absolutely essential for Polish society. We sketch the existing situation in Polish public finance and concentrate on the limitations and possible directions of the reforms. One crucial aspect of the forthcoming reforms will be a change in the revenue that local government derives from central government taxation. Reformers expect to involve local governments in the process of taxation through a new local tax and allow them to establish tax policy on both local and regional levels.
The principles of unity and complexity introduced into the Polish State budget in 1951 are no longer fully observed. In particular, certain funds administered by local councils have appeared gradually in the last years, on the basis of the budget law of 1958 which admitted making some budget expenses dependent on definite budget revenues. Moreover, some funds have been created outside the local budgets. These deserve special attention as a new phenomenon which becomes increasingly important for the local councils activities and especially for councils of the lowest level. The development of decentralized funds seems to be desirable firstly in the economic micro-regions, such as villages and towns, in order to accelerate their development. The augmentation of the role of decentralized funds would also be advisable in counties and provinces provided they constitute regions with specific economic structure. Decentralized funds should be first of all used to finance local investments, the more so that this would be in accordance with the main destination of the funds already administered by local councils. In this way, decentralized funds could in the future be transformed into the local investment budgets. The considerable development of decentralized funds in this country, in particular of those of the lowest level of local administration, seems, moreover, to prove that local budgets at this level, which since 1951 have been incorporated into the State budget, are not fully adequate for financing local councils activities. This suggests that a reform of local budgets of the lowest level is advisable, which would make their administration more similar to that of decentralized funds. The author considers in detail the perspectives and conditions of s'uch a reform of the local budgets of the lowest level, as well as the prospects and conditions of further development of the decentralized funds if no budget reform takes place. He discusses especially the links between decentralized funds and local budgets in this last case. The other subject of the author's consideration is the advisability of financing the local councils activities by bank credit or by credit granted by central funds administered by budget authorities