---

The term of "democracy" has changed significantly from its original meaning in the "Greek polis" context in terms of methods in achieving the ideal democratic system of governance. From the direct to the representative democracy, participation is the only consistent base of it altogether the public- state relationship and all related issues. Referring to transition countries, the discussion on democracy has a crucial importance. The debate for these countries needs to be localized in the context of local government so to describe the real situation and identify the concrete problems related to democracy. The debate on localized democracy identifies the democratic scale of LG institutions based on policies and process analysis whether they are demand-driven or not. In other words, the scrutiny with this regard focuses on public and social accountability and government responsiveness to people demands. Participatory Budgeting initiatives are considered mechanisms that enhance accountability and improve democracy at local level and will be described in this book in the framework of localized democracy in the Albanian context.

---

Irma Qehajaj is graduated in Political Sciences and has a M.A degree in Comparative Local Development for Countries in Transition. Irma is currently working in the business field and is studying the relation between business and local development that will be the topic of her next publication.

---