Seçmenlerin Belediyeler Hakkındaki Etik Algısı: Ankara Örneği

Abstract

Public service ethics has become a more discussed and attention attracted issue in recent years, because the factors such as corruption, favoritism and inefficiency, were perceived as serious problems in public administration. The concept of ethics in the public service means that to attach importance to the ethical values, and the whole of rules and principles that they are obliged to follow by public officials carrying out public services. In terms of reducing corruption and unethical practices in the public sphere, it is important that the public which is the adressee of public services, to take on the role of controller of these services. However, considered the review of the literature, it is seen that the ethical principles, values, corruption and degeneration mean different things to different individuals in society. Therefore, the overlap of perceptions and attitudes of public officials who provide public services and citizens who benefit from these services relating to ethical rules, principles and standarts, come into prominence.The purpose of this dissertation is to be able to determine, what kind of perceptions have the voters about municipalities, in the context of principles, values and standarts related to public service ethics; and which factors affect attitudes and perceptions in question. In consequence, this study aims to contribute to the field of public service ethics by means of empirically-based information and findings. Municipalities were prefered as the research area for this study, because of that, municipalities, provide numerous essential and important public services, are closest local government units to public. The research universe consists of the voters, who are residing in the districts located in the metropolitan area of Ankara.This research can be defined directed in terms of purpose as descriptive, and in terms of data collection techniques used, as applied field research. Primary research data relating to the problem has been collected throughthe survey, which created on the basis of the theoretical framework, by applying sample group. The sample group, a hundred person from each district (Altındağ, Çankaya, Etimesgut, Gölbaşı, Keçiören, Mamak, Pursaklar, Sincan and Yenimahalle) located in metropolitan area of Ankara, includes a total of 900 participants. xAs the requirement of the dissertations purpose, the data obtained from surveys, were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis in order to summarize a large number of variables that affectethics of public service a small number of conceptual factors, and to make them interpretable. In addition that, one-way variance analysis (ANOVA) and t-tests were made in order to determine whether there is a relationship between voters’ perceptions about the factors of public service ethics and demographic characteristics. As a result of exploratory factor analysis, it was observed that survey variables grouped under a single factor. Based on the theoretical framework, this factor is labeled as “publicservice ethics”. Also, as a result of t-test and one-way variance analysis, between voters’ perceptions of public service ethics and the factors such as age, educational level and marital status, were not observed a significant relationship. On the other hand, between voters’ perceptions of public service ethics and the demographic characteristics such as gender, district of residence, inhabitancy period, political tendency, and income level has been concluded a significant relationship. The effects of voters’ demographic factors on voters’ perceptions and attitudes related to public service ethics variables about municipalities were examined one by one, and the following conclusions were reached: the group over the age of 62 have almost about all the variables the most negative perception; women have a more negative perception than men; married and single voters exhibit similar attitudes in general; group of university and higher education in general, draws the most negative profile; the group of with less than 1 year duration of residence is very positive, in contrary that the group of 1–4 years has quite a negative perception; the liberal and socialist voters in general exhibit a positive attitude, whereas the center-left and the fundamentalist wing voters have quite a negative perceptions; the voters residing in the district Mamak and Keçiören have the most negative, and the voters residing in the district Çankaya and Yenimahalle have the most positive attitudes; voters whose level of income between 900–2800 TL, draw the most positive profile.İt is observed that all of the variables in the scale negatively assessed by over %40 of voters, and also a large majority of the scale items negatively assessed by over %50 of voters. According to this findings its determined that voters perceptions and trust about the morality of officials of the municipality are negative. Therefore, the institutionalimage of municipalities effected negatively too. xiLastly, a large proportion of voters have negative opinions about the "utilitarian ethics" approach of municipal officials, and they don’t assess the municipal officials as utilitarian. On the other hand, it is observed, that the rate of liberal voters, who qualify municipal officials as the "utilitarian", were higher than the voters with other political tendency.