Aktywność zagraniczna (paradyplomacja) polskich województw na kierunku włoskim

The main purpose of this article is to present the current state of foreign cooperation (paradiplomacy) of Polish regional governments with their Italian counterparts. The theoretical part shows the essence of paradiplomacy, which is understood as the ability of local governments to be involved in a political interaction extending beyond state borders. The empirical part discusses the spatial directions of paradiplomacy exercised by Polish local governments and Polish-Italian regional partnerships. The hypothesis that regional governments, in addition to their neighborly cooperation, cooperate with geographically distant partners is verified. The cooperation with Italy has been analyzed as an example. The article uses methods typical for social sciences, including case studies and quantitative and qualitative analysis.