Abstract
The level of openness of policymaking has gradually become an important indicator of the progress of public administration reform in countries aspiring for EU membership. Based on lessons learned from previous enlargement rounds, the EU has gradually reformed its pre-accession assistance strategy by putting more emphasis on building capacities of government bodies for implementing more open and inclusive styles of democratic governance. Nevertheless, the countries of the region are still facing substantial challenges in this area. This chapter seeks to identify main factors that affect the quality of openness of Western Balkans' governments with particular emphasis on their ability to ensure adequate access to information, transparent and predictable decision-making, and timely public participation as key components of a wider concept of government openness. It is claimed that the specific design of the EU accession negotiations favours and often legitimizes the dominance of executive while at the same time weakening the position of legislative bodies and civil society actors.
TopConceptual Approach To Analyzing The Openness Of Policy Making
There are different approaches of analysing the concepts of openness, transparency, participation or inclusiveness of public policy making. For the purpose of this chapter, the openness is defined as „the extent to which citizens can monitor and influence government processes through access to government information and access to decision-making arenas“ (Meijer, Curtin, Hillebrandt, 2012: 13). The openness of policymaking is approached as a broader concept incorporating three key aspects: i.) access to government information (establishment and application of the legal and institutional framework for rights of access to public information); ii) transparency and predictability of government decision-making, as a mode of governance based on government compliance with clear and predictable rules and procedures for government decision-making, as well as iii.) participation, which is analysed primarily through the engagement of stakeholders in public consultations on draft legal and policy initiatives. The access to information, transparency and predictability of government decision-making as well as public participation/consultation may be considered as mutually reinforcing. The table 1 presents the conceptual framework for assessing the openness of policymaking, based on the methodology and indicators developed by the OECD – SIGMA for the purpose of regular monitoring of the progress in compliance of Western Balkans countries with principles of good public administration.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Policymaking - the process of development of ideas and plans that are used by public authorities as a basis for making decisions through series of political activities: consisting of agenda setting, policy formulation, policy adoption, implementation, and evaluation.
EU Conditionality: strategy or method used by the EU to encourage reforms in candidate and potential candidate countries in exchange for some rewards related to countries’ progress on the path to the EU accession
Public consultation: two-way process during which public authorities solicit and receive feedback information from citizens and the interested public in the procedure of developing laws, other regulations, and acts.
Participation: opportunity to actively take part in the public policymaking processes
Openness of government: extent to which citizens can monitor and influence government processes through access to government information and access to policymaking processes.
Transparency: ability to observe and monitor the public policymaking processes
Civil Society Organisations: Non-profit, non-governmental, voluntary organisations representing wide range of social interests and acting as mediators between citizens and public authorities at local, national, or international level.