THE RIGHT OF DIRECT PARTICIPATION OF CITIZENS AND ITS FORMS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Abstract

The level of direct participation of citizens in the country is one of the important indicators
of democracy. Countries in transition, such as Serbia, are facing a low level of trust in their
governments and institutions, so this is the main reason why citizens are not interested in direct
participation and why they do not believe that if they participated directly, they would not be able to
change anything. The aim of this paper is to point out the possibilities of direct participation, which
are recognized by law to citizens, at the level of local governments and to point out the obstacles they
face, as well as what discourages citizens from direct participation. Examples of good practice are
highlighted, bad examples are pointed out and solutions for improving the legislative procedure are
proposed.