EN
In Poland, following a period of what might be described as civic euphoria resulting from the fall of the communist system and the reactivation of local self-government in 1990, there has more recently been observed a weakening of public involvement in local government activity, along with attitudes reflecting a kind of civic apathy. Under such conditions, there is understandably a growing interest, among both theoreticians in the field of local finance and those involved in local government in practice, in the concept of a participatory budget as an instrument of direct democracy and a mechanism for participation by local residents in public expenditure decision-making. The purpose of this article is not only to identify the basic advantages of a participatory budget as an instrument for the rationalisation of local public expenditure, but also to point out the main dysfunctions of Polish participatory budgets. The author tries to answer the question of how far the actions initiated by the authorities of particular cities indicate a real desire to take direct account of the preferences of local communities in determining the priorities of public spending, and how far it is simply a kind of game being played with the public, a ritual and superficial form of social participation giving citizens an illusion of involvement in decision-making and distracting them from the real systemic problems of Polish local finance.