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POPESCU Luminiţa Gabriela FAMP
PUBLIC POLICY AGENDA AND RESPONSIVENESS GOVERNANCE CCASP

This involves information processing, communication, and the way through which the public’s preferences
are created and influenced by the governmental strategies and through collective dynamics along with
establishing the policy agenda as a result of convergence agendas.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
.In public services, "responsiveness" is a controversial concept. Democracy would seem to require
administrators who are responsive to the popular will, at least through legislatures and elected chief
executives if not directly to the people (Vigoda, 2000, p.166).

Yet administrators and scholars alike tend to treat responsiveness both, in the best case as a necessary
evil that appears to compromise professional effectiveness, and the worst case as an indication of political
expediency if not outright corruption.

Rourke' s recent assessment is illustrative: The growing demand for responsiveness in government
policy-making puts the survival of a professional outlook characterized by independence of judgment and
indifference to political pressures at increasing risks. American bureaucracy corridors (Rourke, 1992, p.

30 th – 31 st October 2015 ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” Bucharest From the systemic studies perspective, responsiveness can be defined as an outcome that can be
545).

achieved when institutions and institutional relationships are designed in such way that they are cognizant

and can respond appropriately to the universally legitimate expectations of individuals.

The fundamental concern is the quality of life improvement in a society, including within that broad concept
the quality of citizen-state relations.

The achievement of responsiveness in this sense is likely to re-establish the public’s trust not only in the
particular public policy concerned but also more broadly in the state and system of governance. According
to I. Ansoff and E.J. McDonnell's (1990, p.342) perspectives, responsiveness refers to a kind of

government behavior; for example, whether the organization anticipates or reacts to challenges from
environment.

In these coordinate, the responsiveness approach is not only a technical measurement and

implementation issue - it is also a political problem where changes are connected to government activity
and, in the end, to society activity.

Responsiveness is a generic concept that applies to the relationship between a public service and the

citizenry, and to the relationship between the state and civil society.

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