Poland: Participative politics in action

On September 4th, 2007 a public hearing on the amendment of the Act on Public Benefit Activity and Volunteer Work took place at the Polish Parliament. Almost one hundred representatives of the Polish nonprofit sector from the whole country participated in the meeting. About a third of them took the floor to express, on behalf of the organizations they represented, their opinions regarding the amendment of the Act on Public Benefit Activity and Volunteer Work – the most important act regulating the functioning of the nonprofit sector in Poland.

Some of the participants, and others who did not attend, had expressed their concern over the fact that the public hearing was pointless as the Parliament was to vote to shorten its term and probably dissolve three days later (which is what took place). Many, however, believed that many of the MPs (as suggested by the polls) would be MPs in the Parliament?s next term as well so it was still worthwhile for them to hear the comments and arguments of nonprofit sector representatives. Also, employees of the Ministry of Work and Public Policy witnessed the public hearing and they were likely to continue their work in their departments, regardless of the outcome of new elections.

This public hearing is the third public hearing in the history of the Polish Parliament. The first two had not concerned any crucial topics.

In fact, the institution of public hearing has only formally existed in Poland for a year and a half. It was introduced by the Act on lobbing in the law-making process that was passed on July 7th, 2005 and took effect on March 7th, 2006.
Public hearing is one of the forms of direct participation of citizens in the law making process. It is a structuralized process in which law-makers invite citizens to express their opinions on the proposed legislative drafts. During public hearing all citizens, following formal registration, have the right to make a short speech, to comment on the proposals and suggest concrete amendments.

A public hearing can be organized by the law ? makers responsible for developing the Act. In the case of the proposal to amend the Act on Public Benefit Activity and Volunteer Work, the public hearing was proposed by an MP (a member of the House Committee for Public Policy who is also vice-chair of the Parliamentary Group on Cooperation with Nonprofit Organizations) who managed to convinced other members of the Committee to support public hearing on this Act.

The roots of the public hearing institution can be found in the early democracy of ancient Greece. Citizens back then (that is adult, free men) could meet with the representatives of power in the special place ? called agora – to discuss and negotiate compromises and solutions to questions concerning public life and common good. The existence of agora was the realization of the key principle of democracy ? power of people.

The institution of public hearing have been in existence for several years in some European countries (such as Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy) as a means of increasing the participation of citizens. Recently this procedure was also adopted by the European Union. This is to be one of the attempts to break the passiveness that many citizens demonstrate in today?s democracies and whose participation in political life is limited to voting in the general elections every four years or so.

More info:
www.poland.gov.pl