Procedural transparency in rural Romania: linking implementation with administrative capacity?
| Published date | 01 March 2012 |
| Date | 01 March 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852311430283 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
78(1) 134–157
!The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852311430283
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International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Procedural transparency in rural
Romania: linking implementation
with administrative capacity?
Dacian C. Dragos¸, Bogdana Neamt°u and
Bianca V. Coba
ˆrzan
Babes¸ -Bolyai University, Romania
Abstract
The article discusses the concept of procedural administrative transparency and aims to
investigate the extent to which the legal provisions of Law no. 52/2003 on transparency
in decision-making are actually implemented by the local administrations from the rural
communities in the Transylvania region, Romania. The main research questions are:
Where are the weaknesses in the implementation of Law no. 52/2003 in the rural
settings in Romania? Why do they occur? What could be changed to alleviate these
weaknesses? Based on a mixed method approach – surveys followed by direct obser-
vation and informal interviews – we determined that the implementation of procedural
transparency requirements is low and in many cases local public authorities comply only
‘for the record’ with the provisions of the law. The main challenge with regard to
implementation is the existence of universal provisions for all local public authorities,
irrespective of their administrative capacity, existing cultural and social characteristics of
public participation and communication in rural communities as well as the relationship
between central and local tiers of the government. In conclusion, the authors argue that
the implementation level of these requirements could be enhanced by their inclusion in
a general procedural administrative law.
Points for practitioners
Very often, countries from Eastern Europe adopt state-of-the-art legislation which is
then difficult to implement due to factors such as limited administrative capacity at the
local level coupled with differences between urban and rural areas, resistance to change
within the bureaucratic machinery, passiveness on behalf of the citizens, etc. In 2003,
Romania adopted the law on transparency in the decision-making process of public
authorities in an attempt to create a more open, transparent, accountable, and
predictable government. Since its adoption, studies conducted by NGOs have proved
that the implementation level is relatively low. This research assesses how the legal
provisions of Law no. 52/2003 are implemented in the rural areas of Transylvania, one of
Corresponding author:
Dacian C. Dragos¸ Babes Bolyai University, 71 T. Mosoiu Str., Cluj Napoca 400132, Romania
Email: dragos@apubb.ro
the most significant regions of the country from an economic and cultural standpoint.
Based on their findings, the authors argue that implementation in rural areas could be
enhanced provided that local authorities are given more discretion with regard to how
to implement certain provisions (flexibility in the choice of policy tools); and more
discretion should be complemented by increased sanctions for non-compliance and
their enforcement. These two goals can be achieved by including the procedural trans-
parency requirements in a general administrative procedure law/administrative code.
Keywords
administrative capacity, administrative procedure, codification, implementation,
Romania, rural administration, transparency
1. Introduction
In 2006 the Romanian government initiated a process of codifying the main admin-
istrative procedural rules in an attempt to simplify public administration (Ziller,
2008) by generating better protection of the basic civil rights, curbing corruption,
and enhancing administrative efficiency (Harlow, 2009; Huaide, 2006). This
renewed an important debate with regard to the role of ‘procedural’ mechanisms
that guarantee administrative transparency and foster public participation in the
decision-making process of public authorities.
The article aims to investigate the extent to which the legal provisions of Law
no. 52/2003 on transparency in decision-making are actually implemented by the
local administrations from the rural communities in the Transylvania region,
Romania and suggests that the implementation level could be enhanced by
including these provisions in an administrative procedural code. Our decision
to focus exclusively on rural communities was triggered by some earlier NGO
reports that identified significant differences in the level of implementation
between urban and rural communities, without, however, being able to explain
this situation in the framework of a properly constructed methodology and the-
oretical background.
The article is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the concept of procedural
transparency from a theoretical perspective, trying to identify its place among other
strains of transparency. It then moves to the Romanian context by analyzing the
scope of Law no. 52/2003 and the broader context in which it was adopted. Section
3 provides a brief analysis of the main paradigms used to interpret the major
findings. Section 4 comprises the methodology and the research questions.
Section 5 describes the data gathered using a mixed-method approach. Section 6
discusses the major findings and frames them in terms of challenges to the imple-
mentation of Law no. 52/2003 and possible solutions. The last section offers some
brief conclusions and ends with the authors’ recommendation concerning the
inclusion of the procedural transparency requirements in a general administrative
procedure law.
Dragos¸ et al. 135
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