중동부유럽

<p>The notion of governance stresses interaction and co-operation between many interdependent actors and, as such, poses a challenge to political leadership and the traditional electoral- based notion of political representation. Governance-oriented reforms bring about new roles for all actors involved in local politics and policy-making, starting with the elected officials. Among these actors, councilors on both tiers of local government are called upon to take on a new role as goal-steering decision-makers, while accepting a clear separation between politics and administration and the increased interdependence with non-state actors. This paper reflects on the difficulties of accommodating the representational role orientations of local elected officials with the introduction of governance-oriented policy-making mechanisms. It explores two inter-related questions in the context provided by the second tier of local government in Romania: (1) How does the representational role orientation of Romanian councilors look like? and (2) How do Romanian councilors reconcile their representational role orientation with the introduction of governance elements in the Romanian public sector?</p>