Regional Formation and Development Studies

The system of local governments financing, which is used in Estonia is based on personal income tax and supports paid by the state. A system of that kind creates enormous inequality between the local governments. The continuing decrease of income taxes and the increase of tax-free minimum arises the role of state supports. Central government reduced essentially the part of income taxes assigned for local governments and supports in 2007–2010. That’s why the municipalities met a difficult economic situation. The greatest costs for municipalities is education. Government has taken a course to abolishing rural schools. As the analyses demonstrate the schools are enormous source of incomes for municipalities. Therefore the abolishment of schools would made the financial situation of municipalities worse even more. A special method wasn’t created for the analysis. The classical economic means – tables, indexes and marginal analyses were used.

The subject of this study is to present the process of implementing the concept of e-citizen in Poland in the perspective of industry 4.0. In the global world, a significant part of public administration, including local government administration, aims to increase activity using Information and Communication Technology. This process allows introducing more efficient functioning of public administration, especially in the scope of providing services to the citizen. Changes in the functioning of public administration are forced by changes in ICT, in particular by those resulting from the current implementation of the concept of industry 4.0. The result of the research was a description not only the legal bases or development policies of public e-administration, but first and foremost to indicate its practical implementation effects. As part of the practical effects, the study will present examples of the effects of e-administration implementation in the Otwock County. In particular, the attention will be paid to the implementation of elements of computerization of administration by the local authorities, and how it affects local sustainable development.

The article provides an analysis of legislation pertaining to the protection of human rights provided by units of local government. The author characterises the key issues relating to the protection of rights and freedom of the individual in a democratic state, highlighting the role of local government administration. Admittedly, public authorities may cause infringements of individual rights and freedoms, but they can also take actions resulting in the increased protection of these values. The analysis also reconstructs a model of human rights protection, shaped at the level of local government structures and based on the Constitution. The author provides an assessment of legal patterns defining the limits of the protection of human rights executed by local government structures, and formulates postulates in this area, suggesting desired directions for change. Also analysed is the relationship between the constitutional framework safeguarding the independence of local government structures, and tools for the protection of human rights developed in the course of the functioning of local government units on one hand, and the practice of their application on the other. Thus, the publication presents rules and mechanisms for the functioning of local government administration in the context of weighing the significance of the protection of human rights in the current circumstances in Poland.

The article examines the role of the last Jagiellonian monarchs, Sigismund I (1506-1548) and his son Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572), in promoting and securing religious peace in the multi-confessional society of the 16th-century Rzeczpospolita. The author argues that the Jagiellonian dynasty, which ascended to the Polish throne in 1386 and ruled until 1572, contributed significantly to the rise of religious pluralism in Poland and Lithuania, and paved the way for a mechanism of tolerance which made it possible for religious groups to live together and to respect their religious diversity. The author analyses the anti-heretical laws passed by Sigismund I in the 1520s, and Sigismund II in the 1550s, which were intended to suppress the dissemination of Reformation ideas. In these documents, both monarchs declared their loyalty to the Roman Church, and threatened followers of the Reformation with severe penalties. All these documents give an insight into the religious policy of the Polish kings. Anti-heretical legislation was just one part of a more complex and sophisticated policy of the Jagiellonian kings, which aimed at preserving the religious status quo in the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Rzeczpospolita.

Local and exotic flint use and distribution are considered as markers of group mobility. The Arch Backed Pieces and the Mazovian societies organised logistics expeditions in various directions, south-north, west-east, using natural routes as river valleys, but also crossing mountains. Their motives seem to be different and not only connected with economic necessity and subsistence strategy. Group mobility, observed rarely on distances more than tens of hundreds of kilometres, was probably a seasonal event, but sometimes may be a reflection of a permanent exodus.