The biggest Polish cities in response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The perspective of municipal self-government administration

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyze the activities of municipal self-government administration aimed at counteracting the destructive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic during the co-called first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020–June 2020). The article focuses on Polish cities with poviat rights. It presents the results of a nationwide survey in which the representatives of 47 city offices participated. It is supplemented with the analysis of the content of documents (laws, regulations and recommendations) and the elements of a comparative analysis. The conducted research procedure does not allow to confirm the hypothesis. There is no scheme of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic which consists of “bottom-up” activities of municipal self-government carried out in the areas of urban policy which are most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It turns out that most of the activities carried out are “top-down” activities that fit – as the respondents claimed – with the solutions adopted by the central government administration.