Participation in Slovenian Urban Municipalities – Theory and Practice

The paper presents a theoretical overview of local participation and the results of empirical research conducted on a population of Slovenian urban municipalities. The authors tried to learn how Slovenian urban municipalities assess the implementation of activities that effect the principle of participation at the local level as defined by the Council of Europe’s Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level. Most municipalities believe they actively invite citizens to participate in decision making and citizens are consulted in the early stages of the decision-making process. Taken together with the findings of a survey conducted in 2014 on a population of all Slovenian municipalities, the results show that there is still room for improvement in participation, particularly with regard to the proactive behaviour of municipalities.