EIRP Proceedings, Vol 11 (2016)

Abstract

The local public administration is one of the key social actors in the sustainable development and transformation of the community, assuming its constant adaptation to new conditions at the economic, political and social level. The present paper aims to analysis the connections between the development of administrative capacity and modernization of local communities in Romania. Assumptions main research are the need to develop the administrative capacity to support the modernization of local communities and the mutual influence between this two processes. It also takes into consideration to use the analyses for improving administrative capacity made by international bodies like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Commission.

This paper aims to contribute to the development of literature in the field considering the specificity of the modernization process in rural communities in Central and Eastern Europe, which is based on the transformation of public administration and connecting it to the needs of citizens. The target group of readers is represented by researchers, who have the opportunity to develop new mechanisms for the improvement of the administrative capacity but also by practitioners in the field who can implement new development strategies for the local public administration. Quantitative and qualitative tools will be used for the theoretical and practical examination of the way in which Romania can develop by contributing to the general welfare of the citizens.

The originality of the paper is the rationale, description and operationalize a framework of reference for highlighting the impact of modernization on local administrative capacity development. To this we add an empirical analysis conducted for a local community in Romania.