The Level of Political Party Activity: Study of the Elections of Presidents in Cities with Poviat Rights of the Silesian Voivodeship in 2002-2018

: Since 2002 in Poland voters in the local government elections can directly elect the head of the rural municipality, mayor and city president. Local elections, in Polish conditions, are treated as an arena favourable for local committees, often non-party. However, it should be noted that many analyses show that the higher the level of self-government, the more important the committees of political parties are. The increase in the participation of political parties in the election competition is also noticeable in medium and large cities. The author decided to check whether the cities with poviat status of the Silesian Voivodeship favour party committees or rather a committee unrelated to any political parties. For this purpose, the participation and effectiveness of these committees in local elections of cities presidents with poviat rights of the Silesian Voivodeship in 2002-2018 was analysed. The study confirmed that the level of politicization in elections is increasing, however, the effectiveness of party committees in the election of city presidents is lower than the effectiveness of local committees. In addition, political parties are more active and influential in larger cities.


Introduction
One of the most important tasks of system transformation in Poland was the restoration of local self-government. In 1990, after more than 50 years of absence, elections to local municipal councils were held, which were the first fully free elections in a young, democratic country (Piasecki, 2001). Since then, the local government has become a permanent element of the be noted that in 2020 74% of respondents declared trust in local authorities (CBOS, 2020).
Respondents were more favourable toward local government authorities than, inter alia, to parliament, courts, the Constitutional Tribunal or the President of the Republic of Poland.
Compared to the 2016 survey, this trust increased by 10 percentage points (CBOS, 2016).
Moreover, local government elections in Poland are also becoming more and more popular among the electoratesince 2002, the turnout in this type of elections has been regularly increasing. Citizens gradually stop perceiving local elections in the category of second-order elections. According to recent studies, they are even starting to assign this election a greater rank than parliamentary elections or residential elections (Gendźwiłł & Żerkowska-Balas, 2018).
In Poland, in most elections, the main subjects of competition are political parties, but the situation is different in the case of local elections. Local actors, usually non-party, play a significant role in them. It is worth noting that many studies indicate that in Poland, on the basis of local government elections, national political parties are removed from exercising local authority on a scale unprecedented in most European countries. It can be concluded that rivalry in local elections often takes the form of a party versus non-party electoral fight. Therefore, researchers often make the simplest, dichotomous division entities participating in local elections into party committees and local committees (usually non-party). Maciej Drzonek states that "there are always two types of committees ready to represent the inhabitants of a given commune or citythose created on the basis of the structures of political parties (mainly parliamentary ones) or social organizations, and organized on the basis of local, non-party civic initiatives" (Drzonek, 2016).
Some studies also feature the concept of local parties or municipal presidential parties (Czaja, 2017). Local initiatives (especially the more organized ones) and political parties, although they may differ in many respects, have often similar goals -gaining and maintaining power. Especially in medium and large cities, the role of the so-called local parties is growing (and it can even be said that this is where this type of grouping is formed).
There may be several reasons for the low level of political participation of the Polish local government. Firstly, a decline in trust in political parties and an increasingly lower level of party identification in Polish society. It is also related to the lack of the feeling that political parties represent the interests of citizens (Marmola, 2020). Secondly, the introduction of direct elections of mayors led to increased personalization of local elections. This promotes the creation of the committees of local leaders. Another fact is that the instability of the party system is unfavourable for the party's presence in the local government. Moreover, especially in the case of small communes, social relations are very tight, therefore membership in nationwide political parties does not bring the intended benefits (Gendźwiłł & Żółtak, 2020).
In the context of local elections in Poland, it is also worth mentioning that the level of activity of political parties often depends on the level of the election. Political parties (mainly those represented in parliament) dominate at the level of voivodeship assemblies. According to the research, elections to the voivodeship assemblies can be treated as a miniature of the elections to the parliament. In turn, poviats are still a field of competition between party and local entities, from which the local ones usually emerge victorious (Galicki, 2014). On the other hand, research on the level of activity of political parties in communes shows that political parties are the least represented in medium-sized communes (which may be surprising, because the smallest role of political parties in the smallest communes is often indicated). However, both in small and medium-sized communes, these party structures are usually less developed than in large cities, especially in cities with poviat rights. Adam Gendźwiłł and Tomasz Żółtak also note that the position of political parties in local elections is related to their position in the parliamentary arena, although this applies only to stable parties 1 (Gendźwiłł & Żółtak, 2020).

Methods
The subjects of this analysis were the number of candidates of local and party committees and their support in the elections of city presidents in 19 cities with poviat status in the Silesian 1 Which are institutionalized enough to participate successfully in at least two consecutive elections to the Parliament and which are provided with stable funding from subsidies and budget subsidies.
Voivodeship in the years 2002-2018. The main research problem is to analyse whether the level of political party activity in electoral rivalry has increased over the years and whether the size of the city has an impact on the importance of political parties in the rivalry. For the purposes of the research, it was decided to divide the running election committees into party committees and local committees. The data was collected only on the basis of the results of the National Electoral Commission. Among the party committees there were: the election committees of a political party / coalition election committees of political party; the election committees of an organization or election committees of voters, but which have run for authority at the central level; the committees participating in the election competition in two or more voivodeships.
Local non-party committees include: all committees that are not party committees, local leaders' committees, civic committees and party-non-party committees. In order to investigate the relationship between the city size and the effectiveness of the subjects of electoral rivalry, a division into three groups of cities (according to the number of their population) was madecities below 100,000 inhabitants were considered small towns, cities from 100,000 inhabitants up to 200,000 residents for medium-sized cities and cities with more than 200,000 residents for large cities. Therefore, the following were considered small towns: Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Jaworzno, Mysłowice, Piekary Śląskie, Siemianowice Śląskie, Świętochłowice, Żory and in 2018 Chorzów.

Chart 2. The winners of the election competition in the elections of city presidents in cities with poviat status of the Silesian Voivodeship in the years 2002-2018
Source: own elaboration.
In However, in some cities the effectiveness of party committees is much greater than that of nonparty committees (Table 3). Sosnowiec is the only city where a party candidate won each election in years 2002-2018 (a left-wing candidate won three times, and a person associated with the Platforma Obywatelska won twice). This may mean that the pro-party tendencies in this city are so strong that a party candidate will also be victorious in the next election. Bytom and Dąbrowa Górnicza are the next cities where mayors running from party committees dominate over mayors running from non-party committees (4 out of 5 elections). In the case of Bytom presidents representing the committee associated with the Platforma Obywatelska (Committees Platforma Source: own elaboration.
The share of political parties in local government authority is minor in small townsthe lowest compared to medium and large cities. Referring to the division into local and party committees, it could be noticed that in this type of cities, the winners running from local committees have completely dominated their rivals. This confirms the often put forward thesis that in small towns party committees do not have much support. In medium-sized towns, the number of winners starting from the party committee is greater than in small towns. This means that in larger units the role of party committees increases. However, such a result for political parties is certainly not satisfactory. When analysing the effectiveness of election committees in large cities, it is difficult to look for certain trends, because there are few of these types of cities in the Silesian Voivodeship and much may depend on the specificity of the rivalry in a given city. whether it was better for them when a president associated with a political party ruled, or when someone relatively independent was in power. In Rybnik and Świętochłowice in general the local candidates won more often, but it should be noted that in the last 3 election cycles the party committee candidates won twice in those cities. It may also have an impact on the outcome of the next elections. In Bielsko-Biała, although a local candidate had dominated there for years, the party candidate won the 2018 elections. Such a situation may be favourable for party committees in the next elections.
In the case of the remaining but not mentioned cities with poviat status of the Silesian Voivodeship, presidents representing local committees definitely prevailed in them, which may prognosis effectiveness of local committees' candidates. It should be emphasized that these are assumptions made on the basis of the results of the elections for the office of the city president in cities with the poviat status of the Silesian Voivodeship in 2002-2018, so it is possible, as it happens in politics, that in the case of a city the prognosis will not turn out true. Much also depends on the political context in a given city, and above all on the satisfaction of residents with the activities of the incumbent presidents.

Summary
Political commentators admit that political parties consider local elections of secondary importance. Although political parties may be more mobilized during parliamentary or presidential elections, it does not mean that they do not want to expand their power also at the local level. Especially that the growing importance of local government in Poland is undeniable.
Political parties are present in the election rivalry and participate in the exercise of local government power, although their overall effectiveness certainly differs from the assumed goals.
It is said that party committees do not care so much about local elections, but on the basis of the presented data it can be seen that political parties want to be an important part of these elections.
Candidates of party committees prevailed in 3 out of 5 election cycles. However, it is only from the 2014 elections that the percentage share of candidates from party committees in the election competition increases, which is related to the increase of the political nature of this competition.
The predominance of party candidates in the election competition was not related to the predominance of candidates from party committees elected for the office of president in cities with poviat status in the Silesian Voivodeships. The above research also confirmed the popular thesis that the larger city, the greater the role of party committees is. In 2018, changes were made to the electoral code. One of them was controversiallimiting the terms of office of rural municipalities heads, mayors, and city presidents to two terms. That change introduced by Prawo i Sprawiedliwość is perceived as a deliberate limitation of the importance of municipal and city heads who are associated with local committees. The elections in 2023 and 2028 will be particular in terms of the strategies adopted by long-term city presidents.