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CCASP PUBLIC POLICY AGENDA AND RESPONSIVENESS GOVERNANCE

1. THE CONCEPT OF RESPONSIVENESS GOVERNMENT

This research highlights the two concepts: responsiveness government and policy agenda-as a result of

convergence between citizens’ priorities and governmental and parliamentary activities, and tries to find
evidence to prove a relationship of mutual conditioning between these two concepts.

The reason for this research is justified by the need for "vision of the future", a concept devoid of academic

rigor and, therefore, difficult to define, but which emphasizes, on the one hand, the force of a clear
strategic intent and, on the other hand, the irreplaceable role in achieving this vision of public policy to
meet the legitimate expectations of citizens.

In the current context, turbulent and discontinuous, governments are forced to abandon the old paradigm
for the adoption of strategic approaches that are able to offer them the opportunity to anticipate and
respond to challenges. To win the next challenge, the government must prepare to respond to citizen’s

needs and expectations . A real visionary and responsiveness government “must work today for
1
tomorrow”.

From this perspective, the policymakers must enable themselves to "decrypt future” by interpreting the PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” 30 th – 31 st October 2015 Bucharest

signals coming from the environment.

A key characteristic of democracy is the continuing responsiveness of the government to the preferences
of its citizens, as political equals (Dahl., 1972, p. 1).

We see responsiveness as part of democratic signal detection system that alerts policymakers to the

anxieties and wishes of the public.

So, responsiveness is the key to the proper functioning of any democracy and an important value itself.

A good functioning of the democracy must take into account as a primary value not only representation,

but also the means of solving the problems.

1 Expectations are often simply defined as individual’s beliefs regarding desiredoutcomes. Yet the literature suggests
that the definition of expectations, and more so the concept of expectations fulfillment is far from easy to define
(Thompson and Sunol, 1995; Stanizzszewska, 1999).Thompson and Sunol (1995) cite four types of expectations:
- Ideal: similar to aspirations, desires or preferred outcomes;
- Predicted – realistic, practical or anticipated outcomes that result from personal experiences, reported
experiences of others and sources of knowledge such as the media;
- Normative – expectations that are based on what should or ought to happen;
- Unformed – the situation that occurs when individuals are unable or unwilling for various reasons to articulate
their expectations, which may either be because they do not have expectations, have difficulty expressing their
expectations or do not wish to reveal their expectations due to fear, anxiety or conforming to social norms.

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