Legal Instruments of Social Control in Swiss and Polish Self-Government: A Doctrinal and Legal Study

Abstract

One of the basic instruments of direct democracy is the referendum, which is particularly developed in Switzerland. In Poland, due to historical conditions, there is no tradition of using referendums; however, in recent years, the participation of citizens in public co-decision has started to be implemented through the instruments of governance (participatory democracy), i.e. the village council fund and participatory budgeting. Apart from the basic function, i.e. active participation in making public decisions, all the above-mentioned instruments should also fulfill another important role: it is social control in the financial sphere. Therefore, this study attempts to answer the following research question: do the instruments of direct and participatory democracy fulfil the function of social control in the field of public financial decisions, and if so, how? According to the adopted hypothesis, both the forms of direct and participatory democracy also constitute (contain) elements of social control of the activities of public authorities. And by their very nature, these legal instruments of social control are implemented in the form of ex ante external control. To verify this view, the study interprets the content of foreign and domestic acts of universally binding law (cantonal constitutions, statutory provisions).