Communicative policy of public authorities in european countries: comparative analysis

Abstract

In the context of further development of consolidated democracy, availability and affordability of information technologies, the main administrative function of the state is inevitably reformatted from making and implementing managerial decisions to communication with citizens, involving them in the process of public policy development and implementation of socio-political decisions. It is revealed that this tendency poses new challenges to the professionalism of public servants and awareness of citizens, necessitates structural changes within public authorities, the increasing role of information offices (centers) and web portals in their activities. The novelty of the study is to use the case method and summarize the results, based on the historical and political traditions of the countries selected for the analysis and in the dimension of modern development of “connected society”. The study provides an analysis of the characteristic features of the communication policy of public authorities in European countries (two post-Soviet countries and one country that became a member of the EU in the mid-twentieth century), with their distinguished temporal and contemporary trends in the development of government communications. It has been found that such a comparative approach will be useful for developing recommendations for improving the communication policy of public authorities in European countries, in particular, in Ukraine. It is established that the countries of the post-soviet space before the 00’s of the 21st century have had problems with stereotyped perceptions of dialogue as a poor management decision-making tool, time consuming and inefficient in the context of widespread access to democratic participation. The impact of reforms in the system of government communications that took place at the beginning of the 21st century in the post-Soviet countries was evaluated. It was emphasized that the development of government communications significantly contributed to the establishment of mutual communication lines between the state and society, the understanding of public opinion as a basic indicator of professionalism of public servants, provided for the modernization of the form of government information as a simple integrated message conditioned by public interest.