Information on the thesis

The thesis provides a comparative analysis of Polish and Ukrainian experience of political and civic participation at the level of local government bodies, including in the context of making recommendations on the progress and improvement of this phenomenon in Ukraine mainly at the background of its European integration reforms.

This is successfully reflected in the solution of the research tasks, in particular: it was highlighted the historiographical, theoretical, methodological and conceptual prerequisites and features of the study of the phenomenon, functions and forms of political participation at the local level of the political process and at the level of local government bodies; it was analyzed the evolution, formation, features, varieties, forms and significance of political participation as a component of political systems and political process in the context of democratization and growing the importance of civil society and local government in Poland and Ukraine; it was considered and systematized the parameters, dynamics, mechanisms and consequences of the transformation of political participation in the development of public policy, new forms of democracy, decentralization of power and the principles/system of municipal policy at the local level and at the level of local government in Poland and Ukraine; it was described, outlined, organized and compared the specificity and development of various institutional and procedural forms of political participation and direct democracy at the level of local government, including elections, referendums, self-organization bodies, initiatives, petitions, in Poland and Ukraine.

Accordingly, the object of the thesis research was local socio-political relations and processes at the level of bodies and systems of local or territorial government and public authorities in Poland and Ukraine, including in the context of political participation of citizens and their groups. In turn, the subject of the study were the institutional, procedural and functional aspects, types, forms, mechanisms and consequences of political and civic participation at the level of bodies and systems of local or territorial government in Poland and Ukraine, primarily in theoretical, methodological, practical and comparative terms.

In the spatial sense, the thesis deals with the issue of local political participation or political and civic participation at the level of local government bodies in two neighboring countries, that is Poland and Ukraine. These countries are characterized by a common or similar past, comparative parameters of current socio-political development, including the features and components of political systems, and therefore served as a basis for comparison local political participation and for development of consequences and recommendations in this regard for each of them, but first of all for Ukraine. Instead, in the chronological sense, the thesis covered the issues of local political participation in Poland and Ukraine from the time of the collapse of the regimes of «real socialism» and/or restoration of the independence in each of them until the logical end of the study, that is by the end of 2020.

The methodological basis of the thesis was composed of philosophical, logical or generally scientific methods, as well as empirical, special or specific methods of Political Science and other sciences. It is important that the application of various methodologies in the study of political participation at the level of local government bodies in Poland and Ukraine was due to the need for a comprehensive analysis of the scientific research and was certainly based on an integrated approach using multivariate historical, institutional, sociological, systemic, behavioral, structural, functional, activity, legal and comparative approaches, etc.

The scientific novelty of the results is primarily a systematic comparative, theoretical and methodological study of the essence, nature, options, institutional, procedural and functional forms and consequences of political and civic participation at the level of local or territorial government bodies in Poland and Ukraine, in particular with the prospect for their improvement in the latter. Accordingly, the author received conclusions, results and consequences, which turned out to be the solution of the scientific tasks set in the research and are quite often characterized by the elements of novelty. In general, it was argued that the introduction of new forms of participation is intensified by the speed of choice and achievement and a greater level of democracy in the countries where it takes place, and thus it is aimed at advancing democratic values and institutions in them. Thus, it was shown that this requires the fulfillment of at least two prerequisites, including the willingness to share influence with other actors in social life by the authorities and the willingness to acquire additional levers of influence and responsibility and to intensify activities on the part of citizens.

Keywords: political participation, local political participation, local government, Poland, Ukraine