The voice of society in healthcare politics in Latvia

Rıga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia

Abstract

It is impossible to imagine contemporary democracy without society participation in the process of developing regulations and implementation of changes that have a significant impact on society. The opinion of the society is represented by social communities, interest groups, and other non-governmental organizations, which unite people with similar views and ideas and serves as a representative of common opinion to government. The principles of good governance demand cooperation and collaboration with society in all phases of developing, implementing and assessing changes in any policy. The article represents the research on evaluation of cooperation and collaboration practice, as well as an assessment of used lobbying strategies and evaluation of their results in Healthcare politics in Latvia. The research is based on in-depth interviews with the representative of main actors presenting the NGO sector, as well as the representatives of the Ministry of Welfare. The research results indicated that actors that operate in Healthcare sector use all of the possible lobbying techniques with various outcomes. The achieved results are dependent on the skills and available resources of Interest groups, on the desire and possibilities to follow good governance principles in state authorities, as well as of the topical issue.