The institution of village assembly in the opinion of village administrators and inhabitants (on the example of the X municipality)

Abstract

Unlike the institution of referendum which is often analyzed by Polish researchers, the institution of village assembly is far less frequently the object of their deliberations – both in the context of examination of legal regulations and in the context of assessment of social practice. This fact is surprising since village assembly as a legislative body of the auxiliary unit of rural or rural/urban municipality, namely the village, is a well-established form of civic participation in rural communities and represents a unique variant of parliamentary activity at the very local level. The author of the article wants to make up at least in some degree for this lack of sufficiently thorough considerations. He presents a brief description of the institution of village assembly and, next, provides data relating to the way in which village administrators and inhabitants of one the municipalities of the Łódzkie voivodeship perceive the institution of village assembly. Due to the strictly “illustrative” character of research, it was difficult to formulate general conclusions; the author concentrated his attention and efforts on cataloging issues that had been most frequently raised by the surveyed groups. The majority of respondents considered village assembly to be a blocked-up “channel” of civic participation and felt that its “mechanics” was arduous. In this context it was surprising for the author of the article that both village administrators and inhabitants were reluctant to accept his suggestion that it would be good to introduce a moderator/facilitator into village assemblies, who would see to it that all inhabitants participating in such meetings have equal chances to speak and express their opinions, and who would help them come to an understanding.