Aspecte comparate privind delimitarea competenţelor autorităţilor administraţiei publice în domeniul serviciilor publice

Abstract

Public services organization and management has always been a major responsibility of the public administration. However, there could be divergent opinions regarding which public administration authority is in charge of which public services. After studying practices existing in other countries, we can assume that those public services which are meant to satisfy most basic citizens’ needs, (namely public utilities), must be managed by public administration authorities located the closest possible to the citizen (in other words, by local public administration of level one). Regarding upper levels, it is worth mentioning that local public administration of level two is usually in charge of social-cultural and health services, while central government is usually in charge of services perceived as most important for the nation, such as higher education or energy-related public services.