Fundamental variables for a participatory public management model in the case of Cuba

Abstract

Cuban public management is undergoing a process of transformation as a result of the updating of the Cuban economic model, which is based on decentralization and the development of competencies in territorial management. This demands greater citizen participation in the innovative solution of public problems and the generation of local development. It is a challenge for the government and local administrations in their work system, generating the construction of scientific and innovative tools for the performance of their functions. The objective of the article is to identify variables that, when integrated, allow local governments to conceive sustainable solutions to public problems that contribute to local development through citizen participation. The historical-logical, systemic-structural and hypothetical-deductive methods were used, which allowed knowing the interrelations between public management, citizen participation, public problems and local development, as well as the identification of the variables to be integrated in a participatory public management model in Cuban conditions. The starting point was the process of socialist public management for the solution of public problems, its integration to local development and citizen participation. The use of the cluster made it possible to determine the limitations of several models that will give rise to new research, improving current public management. The dimensions identified to work on the conception of a model of participatory management of public problems are: citizen participation linked to the functions of the public management process (diagnosis, planning, execution and control), the use of the feedback process and the dimensions of sustainable local development.