DECENTRALIZATION AND LOCAL AUTONOMY - LOCAL
       PUBLIC MANAGEMENT DEFINING PRINCIPLES

               Petronela Zaharia, "Ştefan cel Mare" University of Suceava
                Irina Bilouseac, "Ştefan cel Mare" University of Suceava


ABSTRACT: In the context of multiplication and diversification of the requirements and
social needs, public administration, together with its authorities needs to operate through
its entire activity to meet and resolve, under the best conditions, the public requirements
and issues. Only by implementing the principles and the rules governing this matter and
under the conditions in which the government deals with public affairs in an immediate
and operational manner, efficiency will be ensured in meeting all interests, be they
central or local.
         Constitutional principles, decentralization and local autonomy govern and
underlie the formation, organization and functioning of local government, ensuring the
interests and meet local needs, in concordance with the specifics of each administrative-
territorial unit.
         Recognizing the legal personality of the administrative-territorial units and their
right to self administrate in order to satisfy their own needs, the principle of
decentralization and local autonomy gives the local government the mission to identify
and to implement the optimal solutions for solving specific local administrative problems,
and on behalf of the local interests which they represent.
         On the background of those exposed in the paper, analyzing the principles of
decentralization and local autonomy, we can say that the exercise of this latter principle
is possible only in the presence of the former, the basis for decentralization being the
idea of local autonomy.

Keywords: local public management, public administration, decentralization, local autonomy,
administrative-territorial units

JEL codes: H, H0, H83