Political identity and types of political participation in Poland

The key issue for developing democracy is activity of citizens which is very often called as civil society. Hence, the aim of the article is to find what is the citizen’s participation at local level. I will present conclusions from empirical research carried out on a representative group of Poles, as part of a national research project called “Political preferences. Attitudes-Identities-Behaviours 2013-2016”. Contemporary research approaches and methodology, as well as the study of individual cases are increasingly being discussed in the wide range of literaturę on political particpation (Verba, Nie 1972; Barnes et al. 1979; Duch 1998; Dalton 1998, 2006, 2008; Inglehart, Catterberg 2002; Barnes 2006; Bernhagen, Marsh 2007; Ekman, Amnå 2012; Lamprianou 2013; van Deth 2014). I will focus on the most popular form of activity at local level in the context of political and party identity: inhabitant consultation; country meeting; district meeting; local referendum. No less important is the presence of involvement in institutional activities through membership in a political party, trade unions, NGOs and local associations. To summarize conducted research, it can be concluded that citizens declare their support for the possibility of co-deciding on municipality budgets and possibility of strengthening their participation through the available institutions of direct democracy in local governments, such as the referendum or locals’ consults. This support is generally independent from sympathizing with the different political parties or ideological viewpoints.