Role of Dialogue in Public Policies

In Poland, both corporate and civil society partners are engaged in many types of dialogue on public issues (public policies of the state). Those types largely correspond to the models of dialogue held in Western Europe. The author puts forward a claim that development of dialogue in Poland is hampered not by structural (legal and organisational) arrangements, but by its low level of advancement, at least in some dimensions. Its intensity is reduced by small amount of expertise circulating within its mechanisms, by imperfect methods of argument presentation, low level of mutual persuasion (confrontation) or limited access of social partners to participation in decision-making in the state (due to statist model of the state functioning). The application of dialogue mechanisms in public policies in Poland remains limited due to numerous barriers stemming from a variety of sources. They result from the way of functioning of some social life structures (statism and clientism) and political life institutions (strong politicisation), as well as from long term cultural factors (lack of the dialogue culture in the past).