Multiculturalism and Multi-Level Governance in Turkish Local Governments

Abstract

The term multiculturalism is a new term that was introduced to the social sciences literature, describing the fact that people living within the same society may differ from one another in terms of such notions as ethnical origin, color, language, religion, culture, and denomination. Multiculturalism policies have probably had more of an opportunity for application in the local governments compared to the central executive units. The local governments, whose powers and responsibilities have increased in the ever-changing and ever-growing public government manners, have transformed into base platforms where these policies are easily applied. In this trend of progress, with the proliferation of participatory democracy and good governance principles, the concept of multi-level governance has become an issue, entirely matching up with the services and functions of the local governments. As part of the legislative regulations in parallel with the EU harmonization process, Turkey has attempted to put into practice the multi-level governance principle on the local governments.