Whose Interest Really Matters? The Role of NGOs’ Representatives within Local Advisory Councils in Poland

Abstract

The article shows the results of empirical research conducted among members of advisory councils operating in Polish cities. The study covers five types of councils: councils of NGOs, senior citizen councils, councils for residents with disabilities, labor market councils, and sports councils. The author focuses mainly on advisory council members who are also NGO representatives. Thus, they have a twofold role: a member of a collegial advisory body, which is supposed to consult local authorities, and a representative of an NGO. The article aims to reveal the motives for engaging NGOs’ representatives in social council activities. Considering the specific character of the NGO sector in Poland, one may expect that membership within social councils will become an arena for pushing the interests of NGOs. However, research results show that the motivations for involvement in social council activities do not have clientelistic patterns. The members of the councils are motivated by similar factors as in other forms of prosocial activity, which may be divided into normative, rational, and affiliative-prestigious. Council members are aware of their double role. They, therefore, distance themselves from the possibility of achieving individual (private) benefits or benefits for the NGO they are associated with. Their membership in councils is motivated primarily by a sense of duty to the group or the organization they represent or local authorities, taking part in the decision-making, and being a member of the prestigious group of experts they consider advisory councils to be.