Aktywność wyborcza i upełnomocnienie kobiet jako wskaźniki demokracji lokalnej

Abstract

The article reflects on the state of local democracy from the perspective of the most common instrument of autocracy, namely the local elections, whose quantitative and qualitative characteristics is analysed here with the application of the following indicators: voter turnout, electoral competition and invalid votes. In addition to the general characteristics of voter turnover, local democracy evaluation is supplemented with women’s empowerment indicator, introduced in 2012 to the methodology of Local Human Development Index (LHDI), taking into account the specific social cultural, economic and political position and role of women in contemporary society. The analysis of election results between the years 1990 and 2010 shows a slow but ever‑increasing trend of quantitative and qualitative growth of local democracy