Partnerstwa terytorialne na obszarach wiejskich w Polsce. Współzarządzanie czy ukryta dominacja sektora publicznego?

Abstract

The subject of the analyses included in this monograph involves selected social structures and relations in territorial partnerships (specifically within LEADER local action groups) functioning in Polish rural areas and financially supported with European Union funds made available in the 2007–2013 programming period. The paper’s introduction includes an overview of the definition of partnership in local resource management, the concept of functional representation, issues related to social participation, as well as definitions of tokenism and clientelism. Also detailed are the relations between the idea of local action group creation with the concept of territorial governance and the rational choice approach in collective activity, indicating the theoretical benefits of group cooperation in resource management. In its empirical segment the paper closely examines the quantitative spatial analysis of the selected social structures observed in local action groups (LAGs), the territorial level of single LAGs, 16 voivodeships and three main historic-cultural regions in Poland. Special attention has been paid to decision councils, which served as a significant element of LAG resource governance processes as they have been responsible for the choice of local projects for European Union funding. It has been estimated that the share of people related to the public sector in decision councils exceeded 50% in 53% of LAGs in Poland, which is contrary to European Union recommendations. There have been cases of professional relations among decision council members in 58% of LAGs. Public authorities have on many occasions attempted to maintain dominant control over funds managed by the LAG through introducing officials who declared to be representing the social sector (referred to in the paper as “the concealed public sector” and considered a display of tokenism) as well as professionally subordinate officials (a situation in which the decision council includes the vogt, the municipality’s mayor or their deputies, as well as their subordinate municipal employees, which is related to territorial clientelism) into decision councils. Such actions are contrary to the idea of resource governance promoted in European Union programmes, according to which one should strive towards balancing the influence of various interest groups, while simultaneously ensuring a high share of private stakeholders (from the economic and social sectors) into public resource management. Attempts are made at finding relations between LAG social structures and local economic and social (including political) determinants. This involves original LAG classifications in Poland using quantitative methods. This is followed by a network analysis of selected social relations within decision council and processes related to the governance of available resources by three interest groups: the public, social and economic sectors. What is analysed are the potential connections between the studied relations and the previously identified social structures. Some of the resulting conclusions include a negative relation between the “concealed public sector” and trust relation density coefficients. Attempts are also made at finding correlations between development preferences expressed in LAG strategic goals and budget structures and the analysed LAG social structures. The book’s summary focuses on the discussion regarding regional differences between the studied features of local action groups in Poland and the issues of using the territorial governance model within LAGs. A series of observed phenomena, including the rapid state-wide establishing of partnerships and the dominant tendencies of the public sector are discussed with regard to the rational choice approach.