Costa Rica

Cantonal Road Boards

The Cantonal Road Boards are public bodies, appointed by the Council of each canton and made up of democratically elected representatives of the community, whose main function is to advise on investment and road development in their district. In 2001, the so-called Law of Simplification and Tax Efficiencies, No. 8114, came into force, which directed funds to the 81 cantons of the country to maintain their roads. In order to increase participation, the Law created the Cantonal Road Boards. When deciding on the ways in which the money will be invested, each Council must take into account the suggestions made by each Road Board in the canton. These Boards must have elected representatives of the community in public and open assemblies, with broad participation of important groups or sectors in every canton. The Cantonal Road Board is considered a public body, appointed by the Council of each canton, to whom it answers for its management. Its members do not earn salary, nevertheless they are considered as civil servants or public functionaries. Among the functions of the Cantonal Road Boards is a whole series of activities related to the accountability of the public authorities involved in the development of the cantonal road networks.

Institutional design

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Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?

Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?

Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?

Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?

Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?

Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?

Formalization
embedded in the constitution/legislation 
Frequency
regular
Mode of selection of participants
restricted 
Type of participants
civil society  
Decisiveness
democratic innovation yields a non-binding decision  
Co-Governance
yes 

Means


  • Deliberation
  • Direct Voting
  • E-Participation
  • Citizen Representation

Ends


  • Accountability
  • Responsiveness
  • Rule of Law
  • Political Inclusion
  • Social Equality

Policy cycle

Agenda setting
Formulation and decision-making
Implementation
Policy Evaluation

Sources

How to quote

Do you want to use the data from this website? Here’s how to cite:

Pogrebinschi, Thamy. (2017). LATINNO Dataset. Berlin: WZB.

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