engleski

Citizen Participation in Decision Making Processes in Croatian Local Government Units

The structured dialogue is a powerful form of communication between citizens and decision makers in the local government units (LGUs). Present state analysis shows that the leaders of municipalities and cities are generally not open to the implementation of a structured dialogue, and that citizens are also not too interested for that process, because they do not believe they can make a difference. However, a literature review and analysis of the implementation of projects structured dialogue through the Youth in Action and Erasmus + programs indicates that there are success stories and examples of good practice in this area. These examples come also from the "neighbourhood", from small LGUs, not necessarily from highly developed countries or just from the big cities ; but the number of those examples is low. This paper proposes a methodology for increasing the level of structured dialogue in fields of different social issues in small local government units in Croatia (or other LGU with similar characteristics outside Croatia). The methodology is based on the Deming cycle and Balanced scorecard (BSC). The methodology defines what actions need to be taken in order to come up with a solution to social problems in a LGU. To evaluate proposed methodology, it was applied to 5 LGUs. A prerequisite for the application of the methodology is the existence of the will and motivation of both parties (LGU and citizens) to work together on social issues. The paper proposes a brief question mark that can be used to quickly identify the readiness of local government to implement such a methodology.

structured dialogue ; decision making ; citizens ; local government units ; methodology for increasing structured dialogue level

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