Quality of government at regional level - example of Lithuanian and Polish NUTS 2 regions

The aim of the article is to conduct a comparative analysis of the quality of government (QoG) in Lithuania (treated as a single NUTS 2 region) and in Polish Voivodships (16 NUTS 2 regions). The analysis of the quality of government was conducted on the basis of indicators quality of government in the European regions developed twice, in 2010 and in 2013, by the Quality of Government Institute in Gothenborg. The results of the performed analyzes show that in both cases the quality of government in Lithuania and in Poland was relatively low, and as regards the quality of government, Lithuania was placed very low in the ranking of the 17 analyzed NUTS 2 regions. The article is of theoretical and empirical nature. The theoretical part is dedicated to presenting public tasks implemented by self-government units in Lithuania and in Poland along with the concept of the QoG. The empirical part contains description of the methodology of research and results of conducted comparative analysis. The article is concluded with a summary, in which the main conclusions from the study are presented.