Civil participation in decision-making on waste management at the local authorities level

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Civil participation is the main component of effective governance. The topicality of this paper lies in civil participation in decision-making defined by the principles of “new public governance” of the 21st century. This study aims to analyze the impact of civil participation in decision-making on waste management at the municipal level. In this work, the following aspects were considered: theoretical assumptions of civil participation; civil participation in the activities of institutions responsible for environmental protection; issues regarding the development of opportunities of citizens’ involvement in municipal waste management. The article is devoted to the theoretical assumptions about civil participation, theoretical model of analysis, and activity of institutions. To develop a theoretical model of analysis, a classification of civil participation was carried out. Among the methods used, one can mention the questionnaire. The analysis was focused on a legal basis for the activity of institutions; the actual activity of institutions and survey of representatives of the national environmental authorities in Lithuania. The results showed that currently there is no mechanism in Lithuania to ensure civil participation in municipal waste management. Civil participation is still formal and limited. Overall, citizens are informed about the decisions made, but they do not participate actively in decision-making. The analysis of civil participation capacity in waste management leads to the conclusion that Lithuania has no single mechanism to ensure civil participation in waste management. To enhance civil participation in decision-making on waste management, it is suggested to set up a council where the representatives of civil population are delegated.

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    • Figure 1. Capacity of civil participation in the activities of national public governance institutions of environmental protection in the field of municipal waste management
    • Table 1. Stages of public participation
    • Data curation
      Andrius Stasiukynas, Arvydas Survila
    • Formal Analysis
      Andrius Stasiukynas, Arvydas Survila, Nataliia Gavkalova
    • Funding acquisition
      Andrius Stasiukynas, Arvydas Survila, Nataliia Gavkalova
    • Resources
      Andrius Stasiukynas, Arvydas Survila, Nataliia Gavkalova
    • Software
      Andrius Stasiukynas, Arvydas Survila
    • Validation
      Andrius Stasiukynas, Arvydas Survila
    • Visualization
      Andrius Stasiukynas, Arvydas Survila
    • Writing – original draft
      Andrius Stasiukynas, Vainius Smalskys, Arvydas Survila, Nataliia Gavkalova
    • Conceptualization
      Vainius Smalskys, Volodimyr Yermachenko, Nataliia Gavkalova
    • Investigation
      Vainius Smalskys, Volodimyr Yermachenko, Nataliia Gavkalova
    • Methodology
      Vainius Smalskys, Volodimyr Yermachenko, Nataliia Gavkalova
    • Project administration
      Vainius Smalskys, Volodimyr Yermachenko
    • Supervision
      Vainius Smalskys, Volodimyr Yermachenko, Nataliia Gavkalova
    • Writing – review & editing
      Vainius Smalskys, Volodimyr Yermachenko, Nataliia Gavkalova