engleski

Co-production of local public services in the context of post-socialist transition in Croatia

Local government bears the main responsibility for the provision of local public services to citizens. Due to trends of administrative (organizational and functional) reform at local level and downsizing of public expenses that were present in Europe from the late 1970s onward, several forms of external provision of public services have emerged across the European countries. Involvement of private and third-sector organisations is now a widely accepted practice of coproduction of public services. Paper will explore the practice of local public services provision in Croatia from the perspective of institutional theory taking into consideration two intertwined contextual influences on local government. The first one is transformation of Croatian society, political system and public administration, especially local government, from socialism to capitalism (known as post-socialist transition). The second influence is a tendency towards coproduction that took place in many European countries in the last several decades as a result of a complex mixture of values and approaches in public governance – predominantly political (participation, empowerment) and economic (efficiency, quality) in nature. Regulatory framework for local public services as well as practice of their provision in the last three decades will be presented and critically analysed from the perspective of historical institutionalism and institutional change. The paper will analyse how transition process affected local public services provision in Croatia in the context of fragmentation of local units (and systemic change of local government) that took place after the transition from socialism to capitalism and in comparison with development of local public services provision in some Western Europe countries. This will allow for conclusive evaluation of the factors that stimulate and constrain local public services provision and their overall modernization.

co-production, local public services, citizens, transition

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