This project is a pilot study, which will be continued after the end of the project within a more comprehensive research on more EU countries. It will be conducted within one of the EU grants and a big international consortium consisting of the institution applying for the OPUS 20 grant and its international partners from Belgium (Free University of Brussels), France (Institut Catholique de Lille), Spain (University of Valencia) and UK (Aston University) who will support the currently proposed project at all its stages.
The research will start from working out the final version of the theoretical framework, whose first draft has been prepared within the preliminary research done by the principal investigator together with the aforementioned international partners. This framework is necessary to define all important terms and have proper tools to explain the democratic and autocratic changes at different territorial levels.
The stage of the empirical studies will follow theoretical research. The necessary data on democratic and autocratic trends in Europe will be collected from the existing data bases and compiled in special charts. Other sources of important data will be as follows: interviews with authorities in the selected Polish cities and provinces (voivodeships) and with experts, focus group interviews with representatives of local/regional non-governmental organisations and journalists as well as mini-survey as the additional part of bigger opinion poll (CBOS).
The phase of the right analysis will consist of two parts separated by the consultation meeting with the Polish experts on democracy and territorial politics in Europe. The final stage of the research – concerning the impact of the interplay between national and local/regional structures on democratic or autocratic changes will be carried out following the suggestions and commentaries of the experts. The full results of the research will be worked out and consulted during a special meeting with the experts, including the scholars from international partner institutions and the Polish practitioners.