Abstract:

With the impacts of globalization, the public sphere has transformed and depending on this transformation some changes have begun to appear in the modes of public service provision both at local and central level. While public service has seemed as a tool to prevent the social inequalities before 1980’s, this trend has changed dramatically afterwards. Because of the neoliberal policies since 1980’s, privatization has become a mainstream policy option, and thus citizens have begun to utilize public services on condition that he/ she can afford the cost of those services. Social policies which include public services such as health, education, dwelling, employment affect not only the individuals but also the society as a whole. Nowadays, the concepts of “socialist municipality” and “social municipality” are commonly used to refer that municipalities have roles in the area of social policies. However, these two concepts are different from one another in some respects. Although two of them emphasize the participation of municipalities to social policies at local level; they differ in the aspect that while “socialist municipality” refers to the usage of authority and resources for the benefit of public, “social municipality” aims to increase local prosperity through social aids to the disadvantageous groups. In Turkey, after 1980’s, a great number of social services have begun to be delivered to the municipalities and the Law No. 5393 on Municipality and Law No. 5216 on Metropolitan Municipality are the main legal bases for the efforts of them to ensure local prosperity through social aids. In this study, firstly, the concepts of “social municipality” and “socialist municipality” will be defined by introducing the roles of municipalities at social policy arena. Secondly, the roles of Turkish municipalities at social policy process will be discussed around the concepts of “social municipality” and “socialist municipality”. Lastly, there will be evaluations on the municipalities in Samsun. This study is based on local and foreign literature along with interviews conducted with municipal authorities in Samsun.

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