COVID-19 and Direct Contact-Free Democracy - Experiences from Poland

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the behavior of local authorities on the issue of participatory budget in the situation of confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. A new category has been introduced here-direct contact-free democracy, which aims to emphasize the need to avoid personal contact while continuing the performance of mechanisms accompanying democracy. To verify the accepted hypothesis, an existing sources analysis, and a survey, in which more than 40 cities with district rights participated, were conducted. Streszczenie COVID-19 i demokracja bezkontaktowa-doświadczenia z Polski Celem niniejszego artykułu jest analiza postępowania władz lokalnych w materii budżetu obywatelskiego w sytuacji konfrontacji z pandemią COVID-19. Wprowadzona została tu nowa kategoria-direct contact-free democracy, która ma za zadanie uwypuklić

Selected Factors Determining the Adoption and Use of Participatory Budgeting in Central and Eastern Europe

“…In spite of some successes at the beginning of the pandemic, later developments have exposed their vulnerability and governments in these countries have struggled a lot. The pandemic necessarily impacted the behaviour and decision-making of local governments and the durability of ongoing PB initiatives as well as the evolution of new initiatives within this context (Baranowski, 2020;Bardovič, Gašparík, 2021;Popławski, 2020).…”

“…It is also possible to find studies whose authors evaluated the legal conditions of individual CEE countries from the perspective of the adoption or continued use of PB (Birskyte, 2013;Šramel, 2018;Zawadzka-Pąk, Tomášková, 2019). Also, the durability and resilience of PB under the uncertain circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic have recently been analysed (Baranowski, 2020;Bardovič, Gašparík, 2021;Popławski, 2020).…”

Participatory budgeting in covid-19 times: a perspective from Paraná and portuguese municipalities

“…This section addresses the aspects triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic on PB processes. In an uncertain environment, the barriers imposed by the health crisis caused restrictions to the realization of the mechanism (Bardovič & Gašparík, 2021;Bhusal, 2020;Cho et al, 2021;Poplawski, 2020). Portugal in the mid-1970s and Brazil in the mid-1980s, both of which provided for in their new National Constitutions instruments to promote citizen participation in politics (Falanga & Lüchmann, 2019).…”

“…A key aspect for carrying out the PB is the availability of resources for its funding (Bardovič & Gašparík, 2021). Restrictions on face-to-face meetings and reduced revenue are among the reasons used by local governments to suspend, cancel, change the deadline or in-person format of the PB process (Bardovič & Gašparík, 2021;Bhusal, 2020;Cho et al, 2021;Poplawski, 2020). Barriers of PB process arising from the COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed by researchers in Slovakia, France, Poland and Nepal.…”

“…According to Bardovič and Gašparík (2021), among the actions taken by municipalities that decided to suspend the process, was to change the PB cycle to two years. A similar measure was adopted in some Polish municipalities, since the pandemic caused a change in the calendar, allowing more time for adaptations to the new reality (Poplawski, 2020). In France, it was verified that some PB processes were postponed for several months, others canceled; in the municipalities where they were carried out, there was a reduction in the number of proposals presented, and in others there were increases in the initiatives (Cho et al, 2021).…”