Turkish municipalities: Reconsidering local democracy beyond administrative autonomy

Abstract

Within Turkish political science literature, local democracy has been mainly perceived as an administrative issue defined in the narrow framework of administrative and financial autonomy and simplified in a general dichotomy with the central government. Yet, since the eighties, Turkish municipal framework has undergone very significant administrative, financial and functional changes, albeit without bringing about a veritable democratisation of local politics. As a matter of fact, the popular understanding of local democracy in Turkey does not really deal with infra-local democratic issues such as the problems of power distribution, of political representation and participation. Thus, a different understanding of local democracy beyond dimensions of administrative tutelage, financial resources and functional limits is required. Departing from this observation, I argue that a new conceptualisation of local democracy including more political elements is required to understand the contemporary state of Turkish local politics. This paper intends to be a preliminary step for reaching such a new understanding of local democracy for the Turkish context.