Rola samorządu gminnego w stymulowaniu rozwoju obszarów wiejskich

The purpose of this article is to analyse and evaluate the potential for stimulating the development of Polish rural areas by local government units (gmina). The author introduces the characteristics and developmental challenges of rural areas in Poland, describes ways of stimulating development of rural areas by municipal government units, looks at the role of operation strategy of community and identifies developmental opportunities arising from the public-private partnership. Various methods of descriptive statistics, such as dynamics of changes or structure indicators, have been applied by the author. The analysis is based on the literature, trade reports, as well as regional and local statistics.