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Innovations in Governance in Croatian Cities: New Modes of Public Participation in Decision Making

Last several decades the process of decentralization is present in most European countries. As the result, numbers of new responsibilities and functions are transferred to local government. One important goal of this process of decentralization is to provide more efficiently public services to the citizens and to increase their satisfaction. Very important pillar of the democracy is the involvement of citizens in political decision making process. As the result of these processes and number of other changes, local government is required to be more responsible for fulfilling its tasks and functions, which requires involvement of different actors in the decision making process and in the process of implementation of public policy. Public participation can be described as the deliberative process by which interested or affected citizens, civil society organisations, and government actors are involved in policy-making before a political decision is taken. In this paper we analyse do local councillors in Croatian cities recognise the importance of higher involvement of citizens in decision-making process. To analyse this we analyse do local councillors in Croatia find that it is important that residents have the opportunity to make their views known before important local decisions are made by elected representatives. Our analysis is based on the result of conducted survey among local councillors in Croatia. Also, in this paper we examine different modes of public participation in decision making process in Croatian cities from the point of view of local councillors. This paper will contribute to filling the research gap concerning the role and importance of citizens’ participation in decision-making process in Croatia. Citizens’ involvement in local governance in Croatia, as well as in majority of SEE countries, is at the very beginning stage of development in comparison with majority of European countries.

public participation; city and regional governance; Croatia.

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