Public Awareness and Participation in Local Selfgovernance in Armenia

Abstract

Raising public awareness and active participation in local self-government is a key component of governance instruments, public organizations and social initiatives in Armenia aimed at achieving “good governance” and strengthening democracy. However, there is no interest in the local self-government system in the Armenian society. This study analyzes the degree of public awareness of LSG and its participation in it in a comparative perspective for 2015 and 2019. In particular, the article is aimed at identifying the structure of the Armenian society using two main dimensions: public awareness of LSG and participation in LSG. For the existing variables, public participation in LSG was impossible to measure, while the result of measuring public awareness of LSG was sufficient. One separate variable was chosen as an indicator of participation in LSG. An index of public awareness about LSG was created. The cluster analysis revealed three clusters that make up society in 2015 and four clusters for 2019. The analysis showed that the overwhelming majority of the population has a low level of knowledge about LSG and public participation both in 2015 and 2019. In 2015, only 2.4% of the population had a high level of participation and awareness of LSG, which dropped to 1.8% in 2019.