Yerel Demokrasi Açısından Türkiye'de Büyükşehir Belediyeleri

Abstract

Today, local governments are becoming more and more important units with their new qualities and functions, in the institutionalization of democracy and democratization of society. In Turkey, these units especially in metropolitan municipalities reveal themselves as the most progressive administrative organizations for local democracy. The aim of this study is to analyze current metropolitan municipality system which has an important role in Turkey's local government structure on the basis of transformation of metropolitan municipalities throughout history in terms of local democracy. For this purpose, a field study was conducted in three main metropolitan municipalities of Turkey to evaluate the positive and negative effects of the legal regulations realized for them on the democratization of metropolitan municipality system. As a result of this study, it has been observed that there are some deficiencies in metropolitan municipalities in terms of local democracy. In this context, the data obtained from interviews with representatives of metropolitan municipality assembly was evaluated in connection with literature findings, and some proposals regarding the development of local democracy in Turkey were put forward.