CITIZENS PARTICIPATION IN ADDRESSING LOCAL PROBLEMS: A CASE STUDY OF REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Abstract

The paper discusses the level of satisfaction of the local government performance and certain forms of citizen’s participation in the improvement of the quality of life in the rural communities, such as creating new job positions, improvement of the infrastructure, creating better opportunities for the children, and decreasing of the poverty. Politicians often make big promises before elections while talking about democracy, rule of law and citizens well-being. After their election, however, they forget about the problems of their fellow citizens. Citizens then feel helpless, fall in apathy and hopelessness, and take a distance from politics and the vital questions for their rural community. The paper will show some data related to these issues gathered from a research conducted by the author in 2016 on a representative sample of 640 respondents on the territory of Republic of Macedonia. The research results show the current situation of the citizen’s satisfaction from the local government with respect to the solutions of water supply and sewerage, transport of citizens, opening of new jobs, building of social services facilities, opportunities for culture and recreational activities, and they ways in which the citizens influenced the local government. The results mostly reflect dissatisfaction with the work of the local government in addressing local problems, the underdeveloped mechanism of public participation, low level of human capital in rural local governments and other problems.

Keywords: forms of participation, satisfaction, local government, rural development, Republic of Macedonia

Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2017.215