THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN DECENTRALIZATION AND DECONCENTRATION OF PUBLIC SERVICES

Given the variety and diversity of social needs coming from the whole human community, public administration aims to ensure the achievement of these needs and requirements of general interest by providing direct public services. Seen as a way of meeting the practical needs of the public, we can appreciate that public service is the foundation of government activity, in fact the rationale of the organization and functioning of administrative authorities and public institutions. Moreover, as the degree of satisfaction of the needs of public interest is reflected in the quality of services available to the community, it is undoubtedly necessary to give special attention to the way in which public services are organized either decentralized or deconcentrated. Therefore, starting from the purpose of organizing public services namely meeting the general interests of the community, this paper aims to analyze the main elements which are at the base of the distinction between decentralization and deconcentration, as ways of organizing public services, given that in the absence of clear demarcations of differences between these two principles, not few times there are many confusions in their implementation.