Citizen Participation and Local Good Governance ; Case Study – Kukes Region

Citizen participation is a wide spread topic and its importance and contribution to a healthy and developing democracy is huge. There are various forms of citizen participation that are known in the literature and in practice; ranging from general consultation and submission of comments on the draft laws via email to direct negotiations, based on stategic partnership agreements; from public debates to bodies led by the civil society organizations (CSOs). This paper aims to present an overview of citizen involvement in participatory democracy at the local government level, and also a study / survey on the three municipal councils of Kukes region conducted in a 1-year period (January-December 2012), where we have tried to present the applied practice of citizen participation in these important bodies of local decision-making, and to bring perspective and perception of citizens on local good governance, transparency and the level of citizen participation in decision-making.