Probleme contemporane ale puterii și administrației publice

Abstract

In this paper we intend to highlight the main challenges that the contemporary power and public administration are facing. Thus, after a brief overview of the concepts of public power, power centers, public administration, we focused on the phenomenon with negative impact over the development of a society: the activity of pressure and interest groups (also known as lobbying), the “rent seeking” behavior and their peculiarities in the Romanian society. The problem of corruption in post-communist Romania was one of the factors that have hampered economic development and political progress, sabotaging from the inside Romania’s path and aspirations towards an entry in normality after 1989. Other obstacles to business development in Romania were the inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy and a slow judiciary system. They were strongly correlated with the captive state, meaning corruption and interest groups surrounding the initiation and adoption of laws, governmental regulations and ordinances. Romania is faced with serious degradation of the climate of public integrity, marked by lack of strategic coordination of legislative and institutional anti-corruption measures. Romanian government can “praise” with higher corruption average than the average of new member countries, and also than the old member states’ average.