Transparency is a key element of the functioning of modern social systems, as it enables social consensus and legitimacy of decisions. Despite the legal frameworks for ensuring transparency, there are differences in actual implementation in both the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia, which affects the level of corruption and the level of public trust in the functioning of public sector institutions. The purpose of the thesis is to examine in detail the concept of transparency in the public sector, to analyze the legal bases and to examine the connection between transparency and corruption.
Qualitative methods were used for the thesis. For the analysis of legal and institutional mechanisms for ensuring transparency, methods of description, compilation, synthesis and comparison of legal sources were used. Inductive methods, methods of comparison, deduction, synthesis and description were used to examine the level of corruption and transparency in relation to international indicators and differences between countries.
The thesis concludes that Slovenia and Croatia have included the right to access public information in their constitutional order, but their arrangements differ. The key legislative acts to ensure transparency in Slovenia are the ZDIJZ, ZIntPK, and in Croatia the ZPPI and ZSSI. Slovenia ranks higher than Croatia in international transparency rankings, and their level of transparency is closely related to the perception of corruption in the country. There are significant differences between countries in ensuring transparency regarding constitutional rights, presumption of access, procedures, deadlines, costs and the powers of supervisory authorities. The work will motivate further discussions on the importance of transparent functioning of public sector institutions. It will also offer concrete proposals for improving the transparency of governance in Slovenia and Croatia. By doing so, it contributes to greater efficiency of the public sector and a reduction in corrupt activities.
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