The project envisages the following deliverables: dataset on the democratic/autocratic trends at different territorial levels, academic publications on the theoretical matrix and on the study of Poland as well as policy paper – with recommendations on how to tackle inefficiencies in democratic reforms in multi-level settings.
The project will have thanks to these outcomes a positive impact on the research in political science and on the local and regional communities in Poland. Its theoretical matrix will facilitate understanding and explaining the democratisation and autocratisation at different territorial levels. In the empirical dimension, the project will contribute to the academic debate on the change of political regimes as well as to development of research on the political system and territorial politics in Poland. The cooperation with international partners within this project will create a new network of scholars specialised in democracy and territorial politics. The study will also allow the investigators to identify rules and practices of good regional and local democratic governance by providing knowledge of how to build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at the regional and local level by identifying and responding to specific autocratisation practices. The research team will be able to formulate recommendations for subnational authorities, NGOs members and journalists on the best practices to strengthen democratic governance in a multi-level setting.