Citizen Participation in the Decision Making Process at Local and County Levels in the Romanian Public Instituitons

Abstract

The article examines the aspects related to citizens’ involvement in the decision-making process at local and county levels in Romania from the point of view of the top level civil servants and public officials. The research interest for this issue is part of a larger research effort aiming at determining the main patterns of decision-making process in the Romanian public institutions, including the characteristics of the interactive decision-making models. Our paper seeks to find out who are the policy actors that participate in different stages of the decision making process, the level of their involvement and the degree of citizens’ involvement in public decisions making. The research was conducted on a representative sample at the national level and the sample included top level civil servants and public officials working in county councils and local councils from county seats, municipalities, cities and communes. The response rate was approximately 30% and it is based on 381 questionnaires filled in and sent back by the respondents. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that only local public institutions were analyzed and that we focused exclusively on the public officials’ and top level civil servants’ perception about citizen participation. The research shows a low level of citizens’ involvement in the decision-making process, even though public institutions from local and county level provide them with the necessary means for participation. However, when the citizens submit suggestions in the policy formulation stage, their suggestions are taken into consideration by the public officials. The research provides us with enough evidences to characterize the public participation in Romania at local and county level as a form of consultation according to the Arnstein’s ladder of participation. Even if citizens have a chance to be heard, the political elected officials hold the control over the decision-making process.

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