Abstract:
The degree of involvement of citizens, both individually and as part of civil society associations, denotes not only the level of communication between public authorities and the external environment but also the level of development of society. Statistics in the field demonstrate that an economically and democratically developed society is an open society with public authorities and institutions oriented toward citizens as customers, consumers of quality products and services. Moreover, citizens are not just consumers of democratic decision-making processes (by virtue of representative democracy) but also active participants in the decision-making process. They are part of it, namely through the mechanisms of citizen participation.