engleski

Citizen participation as a form of active control of public administration

Central and Eastern European countries have lived almost half a century in non-democratic authoritative state systems. All societal organization was top-down. Citizen was expected to behave in certain way and not to question this way. All the problems were tackled from above and it is not only that citizen participation wasn‟t encouraged, but it was actually blocked. After the fall of communist non-democratic systems citizens should be taught how to exercise new political freedom. All successful societies are bottom-up based. Citizens are the ones who have to take responsibilities for their lives. It is up to them to initiate, ask, demand, study, take part, run for the office, etc. The government‟s task is to facilitate and actively help construction of civil society. Citizens have to understand that the time in which they were passive and have waited for authority to deal with all the problems has undoubtedly past. Citizens must organize themselves and pose a real partner for authority and mutual co-operation is the best way to deal with ever growing problems of modern life.

citizen's participation; control; public administration

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