COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND CITIZENS THROUGH NATIONAL WEBSITE
Keywords:
public administration, local government, citizens, information technology, online communication, styleAbstract
Participatory practices and online communication in Public Administration institutions are expected to enhance citizens’ participation in public affairs and develop a more functional and democratic work style. This paper presents some major criteria of classifying the types, forms, and characteristics of communication between Public Administration and citizens. A short review and meta-analysis of the form, nature, language, and style of some select individual complaints and replies posted on the Romanian Local Governments National Website is presented. Letters from claimers are generally formal, polite, mild tempered, and include few emotional elements. Authorities’ reply style and wording is also formal, cold, impersonal, and homogenous across departments, while messages are short, precise, and lawfully relevant. In terms of online direct informational exchange with the citizens, the City Hall of Cluj-Napoca (Romania) is ranked among the first 12 local Public Administration authorities in the country that replied to 90% … 100% of the online addressed complaints. During the 9-year period since the implementation of the website, the Mayor’s Office of Cluj-Napoca is the absolute leader of the online communication with the citizens, with a response rate of 92% replies to more than 25,000 intimacies.
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