Abstract
The Europen Charter of Local Self Government was introduced and initiated in Turkey in 1992 however there were reservations placed on certain articles of the agreement. This Charter can be said to be considered as an essential reference paper for the agenda of Turkish Public Administration for the discussions of “reformation in local governments”, “empowering local governments” and “creating autonomous local governments”. The Charter has continously been present in the agenda of Turkish Politics before almost every elections, during preparation of a new constitution, the peace period and democratisation issues. These discussions are in relevance to removing or maintaning the reservations placed on the articles of the Charter. The Council of Europe has initiated the Charter and has started working in 1997 towards creating similiar documents at regions. The Council initially accepted the European Draft Charter of Regional Self Government and in accordance accepted the Reference Framework Document for Regional Democracy in 2009. The Draft Charter states that the recognition of the autonomy of regional governments will not be allowed to impact the policy of loyalty to the state in any way and that the regions will not be able to negatively impact the national unity. The purpose of this study is to research and present the discussions of the autonomy of local governments in Turkey in regards to the mentioned papers. The study will be limited to the impact caused or the impact that may be caused by the above mentioned documents and agreements in regards to autonomous local government discussions in Turkey. The above mentioned articles will not be examined in detail. Keywords: Local Autonomy, Local Government, The Principle of Subsidiarity, Decentralization and Regionalization, Turkish Political and Administrative Culture
Highlights
The foundational emphasis of the normative political theory on the subjects of local government and local autonomy is about the possibility of these being the provider of distribution of power and plurality, of diversity against the uniformity of central policies and efficiency, of accountability and political participation
In Turkey local autonomy is interpreted as local independency and due to this the initial content of the local autonomy is never being discussed and the reason behind this is Turkey’s political environment and conditions
Reference Framework is not a document similar to The European Charter of Local Government that is accepted by the members of the Council as an agreement, as it is based on Helsinki principles and The European Draft Charter of Regional Government and accepted by the Cabinet Conference, the political power and the legal basis of the Reference Framework is confirmed (Keleş & Erbay, 2013)
Summary
The foundational emphasis of the normative political theory on the subjects of local government and local autonomy is about the possibility of these being the provider of distribution of power and plurality, of diversity against the uniformity of central policies and efficiency, of accountability and political participation. For Article 3 of the Reference Framework for Regional Democracy “Regional self-government denotes the legal competence and the ability of regional authorities, within the limits of the constitution and the law, to regulate and manage a share of public affairs under their own responsibility, in the interests of the regional population and in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity”. The debated subject about the local self-government in Turkey, especially since 1990, is more about the appropriateness of the Turkish legislation to the European Charter of the Local Government and the effort to adopt the relevant legislation to the Charter The progress of these discussions in that manner leads to the devotion of the concept’s meaning and at the same time to the ignorance about the current situation and misinterpretation of the subject.
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