Conference Paper

The creation and implementation of political processes in many countries worldwide is based on parliamentary democracy. Thus many countries have a long tradition of citizen participation in the local self-government and local democracy. Yet, all of them seek for new complementary methods for involving the citizens in the policy- making and conduct, i.e. political processes at local level. The government, whether central or local, has to and should invest time, resources and commitment in the development of pertinent legal, political and institutional frameworks, when developing proper means and assessing its own efforts for including the citizens in the process of policy-making and conduct. Unsuitably designed and applied measures for informing, consulting and active citizen participation might disturb the already incompletely defined and underdeveloped local self-government system, that is relation between local authority and citizen. The local authority could try to inform, consult and involve the citizens in the policy-making process, but also it should not forget the opposite effect provided that the citizens find out that their efforts and endeavors are being ignored, or that they have no influence on the political processes. Considering the bad experience from the application of the Law on Local Self- Government, and particularly concerning citizen participation in the political processes at local level, the following question strikes the right note: Are the existing constitutional and legal guarantees and political culture of our citizens sufficient to strengthen the relation between the citizens and the local authority, and to make their participation and influence in the policy-making processes larger and more active at local level?