Cel -Celem artykułu jest analiza zakresu samodzielności finansowej gmin w Polsce w kontekście koncepcji good governance (jakość rządzenia). Artykuł jest próbą odpowiedzi na pytanie o to, czy zakres przedmiotowej samodzielności jest spójny z wymiarami jakości rządzenia?Metody -W artykule zastosowano metodę opisową z elementami analizy prawnej oraz analizy danych statystycznych dotyczących sytuacji budżetowej gmin w Polsce w latach 2008-2017.Opis badań -Przedmiotem rozważań prowadzonych w artykule są zagadnienia samodzielności finansowej JST w Polsce w zestawieniu z istotą good governance). W poszczególnych częściach artykułu autorzy przedstawili teoretyczno-prawne aspekty samodzielności finansowej JST, dokonali charakterystyki koncepcji good governance oraz podjęli próbę oceny zakresu samodzielności finansowej gmin w Polsce przez pryzmat wymiarów jakości rządzenia.Wyniki -Stwierdzono, że samodzielność finansowa gmin nie jest kategorią stałą. Mimo procesu decentralizacji jest ona ograniczona w różnorodny sposób, co wynika m.in. z działań państwa na szczeblu centralnym, a także jest zdeterminowana stanem finansów danej jednostki. Analizując zakres samodzielności finansowej gmin w perspektywie good governance dostrzeżono, że w niewielkim stopniu jest ona spójna z wymiarami jakości rządzenia, takimi jak: demokratyczne państwo prawne, przejrzystość, partnerstwo oraz efektywność i skuteczność.

Purpose: The main aim of this article is to conduct an econometric analysis and to examine relations between institutional factors pertaining to the quality of governance and the level of GDP per capita in 28 member states of the European Union. Design/Methodology/Approach: The analysis of public governance and good governance concepts is based on critical analysis of the recent literature. Institutional quality of the public sector is analyzed as a part of New Institutional Economics theory. This allows to indicate the institutional dimensions of the quality of public sector. In the empirical part, focus was given to measuring governance and examining relations between institutional factors pertaining to the quality of public governance and the level of GDP per capita in 28 member states of the European Union. To this end, World Bank data were used, and six indicators proposed by this institution were assumed as synthetic measures of governance quality (The Worldwide Governance Indicators-WGI). Findings: The conducted analyses resulted in positively verifying the model of relations between dimensions of governance quality and the pace of economic growth in the EU-28. Based on correlation studies, out of the six analyzed dimensions of governance quality i.e. voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption, only political stability transpired not to be correlated to the level of GDP per capita in the studied economies. Practical Implications: The results are especially important for policy makers to understand the importance and the role of good governance. As for society, research results can increase awareness in assessing the quality of governance in each country. Originality/Value: The scientific results fill the gap in the research area of institutional quality of the public sector, and also show the significant relationship between the quality of governance and the economic outcomes (economic growth).

Fiscal governance is defined as a combination of institutions, rules and norms that structure good governance in the area of fiscal policy. It can be named as the specific mechanism of coordination by using of tools such as: budgetary procedures (legislative fiscal rules), fiscal rules (numerical) and independent fiscal institutions/ fiscal councils. Fiscal governance focuses on how the fiscal policy is planned, approved, conducted and monitored, including the involvement of not only public bodies, but the business sector and civil society too. In this study, particular attention was paid to capturing the essence of the relationship between the qualitative elements of fiscal councils activity and its impact on stabilizing the public finances in the view of fiscal governance concept. During the last world crisis in the EU countries, an interest in establishing fiscal councils has increased. Before 2008 there were only seven institutions in the EU, while in 2014 there are already 19. The question is - are these institutions efficient in stabilizing public finances? Therefore, the main objective of the article is the assessment of the role of the fiscal councils in the coordination of the fiscal policy in the EU Member States. The conducted analysis verifies this role on the basis of theoretical deliberation of the current state of the art. The empirical research verifies fiscal councils’ dependence on fiscal balance of EU countries. Research was conducted on the basis of the European Commission, Eurostat and International Monetary Fund data sets.

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Motivation: While implementing a tax policy, attention should be paid not only to the amount of tax revenues but also to the total cost of the fiscal process itself. Only an analysis with consideration of tax collection costs provides the possibility of unequivocal assessment of a tax system's effectiveness. Aim: The aim of the article is to identify the elements of tax transaction costs and to analyze in detail the tax administrative costs, as well as to assess the effectiveness of the Polish tax system compared to that of other OECD countries. Results: The Polish tax administration is one of the most expensive in the European Union and it requires reforms. According to the OECD, tax collection costs in Poland in 2013 amounted to 1.6% of tax revenues. Among the 56 countries surveyed by the OECD, only Japan (1.74% of revenue) and Saudi Arabia (1.62%) had a higher tax collection costs index.