Abstract:

Local governments are quasi-independent organizations that aim effectiveness and efficiency in local public services where democratic values are deepened as well as widened further through direct participation of citizens into governance processes. The services provided by the local governments are those which not only directly affect the lives of citizens but also are closely followed up and evaluated. One of the outstanding issues within the context of globalization and European integration processes in Turkey has been restructuring of local governments and the subsequent transformation of their functions. The recent changes in the EU local governance structures and their functions accelerate the transformation of Turkish local government especially in terms of institutional structures and functions. Both municipalities and special provincial administrations have been the subject of regulatory reform in the recent years. This is likely to be extended to regulations concerning the villages as it is now and then mentioned in the media. However, there is hardly any data to assess the position and functions of the municipalities and the special provincial administrations within Turkish public administration system. Especially, data and evidence related to the practice of New Public Administration approaches (such as strategic management, performance appraisal, accountability, local governance, etc) are rather limited. Consequently, in this paper, the notion of local government, and local governments in Turkey, more explicitly, the evolution of special provincial administrations, their structure, functions as well as their current problems are analyzed in the light of recent trends and developments

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