Local politics
Z Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej
LOCAL POLITICS – these are all legal and administrative measures taken by bodies of particular local-government units (county, municipality) on their territory. L.p. can also be understood as the activity of local authorities in the social, economic and cultural sphere under the conditions of permanent game for resources, aimed at finding optimal ways of redistributing them. The essence of l.p. in the practice of socio-economic life consists in defining the methods, standards and scope of performing public tasks and allocating financial and technical resources which are municipal property. L.p. is implemented to meet the collective needs of the local-government community. Its local character means that it is limited in principle to the space delimited by the administrative boundaries of a local community or several communities that engage in local cooperation. The bodies of the territorial authority (e.g., local government) form a local policy with the participation of the government administration (e.g., the representative of the government in the field). The scope of their independence results most often from the specific structure of the state (e.g., the level of deconcentration, decentralization of the state). The essence of l.p. is a strong focus on the particular needs of the → local community and its interests. L.p. may include in particular: local legal acts, economic plans (e.g., budget), special development plans, rules of managing local (municipal) resources, emergency plans (e.g., flood hazards) [ K. Tomaszewski ].
Literature: J. Kleer, Samorząd lokalny. Od teorii do badań empirycznych [Local government. From theory to empirical research], Warszawa 2009. ■ T. Markowski, Zarządzanie rozwojem miast [City development management], Warszawa 1999 ■ G. Masik, Typy polityki lokalnej. Przykład strefy suburbanizacji aglomeracji Trójmiasta [Types of local policy. An example of the suburbanisation zone of the Tri-City agglomeration], „Studia Regionalne i Lokalne” 2010, no. 1(39).