THE VILLAGE FUND AS A FORM OF SOCIAL PARTICIPATION ON THE EXAMPLE OF POLISH REGULATION AND EXPERIENCE.

Social participation is an important element of building interpersonal ties and real participation in the exercise of power. However, building real instruments of social participation is difficult. The authorities, including the local ones, are reluctant to get rid of it.

The aim of this article is to present a unique instrument of social participation, regulated in Polish law, which is both a manifestation of a real transfer of power to the inhabitants of smaller communities (rural communities) than the commune, and at the same time encourages the commune authorities to get rid of these powers for the benefit of these communities.

This instrument is the village fund, which is an optional part of the commune's budget. The residents themselves decide in a binding manner for what purposes the public funds covered by this fund will be spent. In principle, this fund can only be established in a municipality which is entirely rural or which covers rural areas. 

The use of this instrument of participation benefits not only the residents by giving them full authority to independently indicate for which projects public funds will be transferred, but it is also beneficial for the authorities of such a community themselves, because it combines the use of this instrument with additional transfer of money from the state budget. This is the only case of transferring funds from the state budget to communities without indicating for which tasks these funds can be spent. The basic methods of analysis will be dogmatic methods based on the interpretation of legal provisions and the analysis of the views of representatives of science. Supplementary methods include empirical methods involving the analysis of data collected in connection with the use of the village fund. The analysis showed that there is a great interest of the inhabitants of the smallest and economically weakest rural communities, to whom this instrument of participation is addressed. The mode of participation is quite transparent and guarantees the independence of such communities in choosing those projects that, in their opinion, should be implemented.

Importantly, the village fund cannot be used in cities. The disadvantage of the existing solution is both the limitation of this instrument to rural communities only, and the insufficient financial resources that can be covered by it.