Descriere
In contemporary societies, which are dependent on infrastructure and on an almost endless array of universally applicable needs and utilities, citizens’ need to benefit from all the advantages of life in organised environments is increasingly pronounced and elevated.
Especially within urban agglomerations, which are ever more extensive and densely populated, the basic needs of individuals can only be satisfied through an integrated system of specialised bodies
and public-origin activities, carried out by these bodies, through which such community requirements indispensable to a modern, increasingly demanding and exigent society are fulfilled.
For this reason, the public service function vested in public authorities has become an indispensable instrument of contemporary society, a fact which renders the dimension and structuring
of the legal concept of „public service” increasingly complex and more difficult to define in a standardised manner by legal scholars.
Through the present article, we aim to analyse, in an integrated, elaborate and comparative manner, the integrated dimension and the complex, multidisciplinary and emergent valences of the
institution of public service.
We shall seek to highlight the composite and defining elements of this state mechanism for ensuring societal coherence and for satisfying the elementary needs of citizens organised within
administrative-territorial units at state level.
In this regard, we aim to answer the following fundamental question: does the public service constitute a defining legal element underpinning the coherent and predictable organisation of society,
with relevance for revealing the democratic foundations of such a society?
In order to highlight the distinct, plurifunctionally dimensioned legal composition of the analysed institution, we shall rely on the historical method, in order to determine the evolutionary structuring of this concept and to more accurately and prominently reveal the current normative and functional structure of the concept of „public service”.
We shall also employ comparative analysis methods, with a strong emphasis on the analytical, descriptive, functional, and socio-legal aspects of the normative framework that integrates the notion
of public service.
The anticipated analytical outcome of the authors aims at providing a useful and well-documented instrument for legal professionals and students alike, intended to facilitate the understanding of the structured composition of the concept of public service.
