Experiences in “Letting the Public in”: Tentative Conclusions on the Administration-Public Tango for Co-Responsible Local Governance

Abstract

Governance and citizenship issues are more complex, and communities recognize the need for a new approach to mobilization, participation in creation and welfare, and a joint responsibility for the implementation of public life management principles. The paper proposes a view of Romania’s struggles to work from the bottom up by experimenting with various European models in a common framework of local administration to encourage citizen participation. After initial enthusiasm for a process led by the Council of Europe aimed at creating co-responsibility areas, administrative practices showed that local governments refused to grant the prerogative of leading public policies and distributing budgets. The model of co-responsibility aims to restore participatory democracy, ensure sustainable development, and reconfigure relations between social actors such as governments, enterprises, civil society, families, and individuals. However, progress has been slow, and as the example described in Timișoara, Romania’s largest western city, shows, it has still a long way to go before the implementation of participatory governance, for example, in the form of budget allocations, is appreciated positively by the local population. This paper is based on participatory observations, media monitoring, and the study of key actors involved in promoting co-participatory processing at the local level.