Partycypacja obywatelska jako utopijna wizja samorządzenia społeczności lokalnych… – na przykładzie miasta Krakowa

Civic participation is a term used to describe the participation of the citizens in makingand realizing decisions by the public government and administration. Civic participationcan take many forms, which in theory include different degrees of citizens’ engagementin decision making: informing, consulting, co-deciding. The catalogue of participationtechniques includes, based on the example of Krakow, many ways of civic participation, e.g.:local referendum, civic budget and participatory planning and designing. The examples ofparticipatory activities in the city of Krakow listed in this article exemplify serious problemswith the effective realization of this form of governing. It is especially important in the contextof the emerging postulates of replacing the traditional model of finances management ofa territorial self government unit with a mechanism based on the civic participation anddirect democracy. The idea in which the municipality budget is constructed by the way ofdemocratic discussion, in which every citizen can decide on what part of the public money isspent, belongs to the sphere of the impossible to realize utopia.Key words: civic participation, civic budget, Krakow self-governmen