Role sets of advisory councils in local policymaking process: the perspective of council members

The article complements literature on advisory councils, and in particular their involvement in the policymaking process. The author examines the AC roles by referring to the concept of the roles set. In addition to ACs conventional roles of providing opinions and advice, there are other roles, which are classified as roles prescription and roles performed. The first were identified from examining the legal basis of ACs, while the roles performed were discovered by empirical research that was carried out among members of 78 ACs established in 16 Polish cities. It was found that all the ACs that were studied had developed additional roles to the roles that they had been prescribed; and that the fewer roles are prescribed the more other roles the AC generates. It was also observed that the fewer roles ACs play on the basis of statutes, the more roles are transferred to them by local authorities, which shows the important regulatory role of the latter.