Social consultations in the process of preparing the government’s bills – an outline of the problem

Abstract

The article contains a critical analysis of chosen aspects of social participation in the process of preparing the government’s bills. Dialogue between the social partners and the government plays a special role in this process. On the one hand, that dialogue is an important element of so-called deliberated democracy. On the other hand, it contributes to rationalization of the legislative process. The social consultations are not regulated in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2nd April 1997 but in the many of statutes. A catalogue of subjects who participate in the social consultations is very large and contains about 70 organisations, among others trade unions of workers, and employers. A special forum for contacts between the social partners in the process of preparing the government’s bills is the Trilateral Commission for Social and Economic Affairs. In the modern Polish legal order there is no compact model of social consultations, which precisely qualifies their functions in the law-making process. In the context of the principle of sovereignty of the nation and the principle of civil society it is extremely important to give the social consultations a real shape and to provide them a real influence on the legislative process as well.