Sborník 2009 díl 2. - Fakulta informatiky a managementu - Univerzita ...

Renata Przygodzka PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF REGIONS
Public organizations, acting on behalf of the state, serve numerous functions, which
usually are contained within the constitution and acts. These are [4, p. 37-38]:
1. Function of a caretaker - the state should not only maintain public order, protection
against terrorism, violence, protection of the minorities against oppression of the
majority, but also it should provide protection against unemployment, poverty and
illnesses.
2. Function of a judge - the state specifies the terms of the competitive game and socialpolitical
relations.
3. Control and creative function - the state should guard free competition and the
freedom of economic operations. It should also be responsible for maintaining the
infrastructure, both social (schools, hospitals, cultural institutions) as well as technical
(roads, bridges) and is obligated to support economic development and to limit the
effects of economical crisis.
4. Function of a coordinator - the state is responsible for maintaining internal
economical cohesion, and thus its involvement in redistribution of national income is
justified.
5. Productive function - the state produces certain goods and services e.g. mail,
transport, etc.
The scope of detailed functions and tasks of public organizations depends on, mainly,
their type and location in the multi-level structure of the public sector, and thus on
whether the administration is government and self-government, central and regional,
administrational institution of services, guard, inspections, or a state agency, national
fund, health protection institution, education, culture, research and development unit,
higher school etc. Nevertheless due to the specific characteristic - publicness - the
nature of the main functions and occurrence at all administrative division levels
(country, region/voivodship, county, municipality), one may conclude that public
organization have strong effect on their development.
Role of public organizations in the region’s development processes
The concept of development is usually understood as a process of positive changes,
including a quantitative growth and qualitative progress. In relation to a region it means
changes occurring in the given system, taking into account the proper forms, needs,
goals and value preferences and hierarchy.
The most important issue in creating regional development is recognizing the
development mechanisms and factors, as well as the existing barriers, which may
impede the development processes. Also the issue of formulating appropriate goals,
which will constitute the resultant of the goals and needs of diversified social groups of
entities operating in the specified region, are of significance 2 . The mission of working
out a consensus and marking out new development directions lies with the authorities of
the region. Along with the authority decentralization processes, territorial selfgovernments,
as the entities controlling the region's development and at the same time
2 One needs to remember that the system of regional economy creates a series of entities, between which
various contradictions and conflicts occur. Despite what would seem a common goal, which is
maximization of benefits, the methods of achieving them differ, and thus maximization of the region's
benefits cannot be a simple sum of the entities' individual benefits.
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