Abstract:

Local autonomy can be accepted as an expression which states that local governments would act liberally from the central government in terms of economy, administration, and politics; but all in definite boundaries. These boundaries are defined by the central government, nevertheless give the local governments a quite wide range of freedom to act. It is a necessity of the term “local autonomy” to decrease the control over local governments through the limited levels. Therefore, the central government should give up on the understanding that is based on guardianship over local governments, and its space of supervision must be on some specific legal issues. Otherwise, an under-control local government, which mostly acts under the control of the central government, is faced. The autonomy of local governments is one of the matters on which is placed great emphasis as far as the theory of local government and its practice are concerned. Today, in many developed and developing countries, a number of reforms, one of which is concerned with local government, have been made for the improvement of democracy and the provision of efficient public service. Local goverments are charged with important functions or responsibilities by the regulations related to the reforms of local governments. After the discussions related to the narrowness and width of the range of action for local governments within the academic and intellectual neighboırhood, the importance of local governments, especially of the municipalities, has risen in Turkey and all around the world. All the discussions over globalization and democratisation, slide onto the local governments directly, and they get shaped on the base of local autonomy. The economic and social evolution, especially during the 1980s, changed the understanding of the local autonomy significantly. In this study, the debates over local autonomy in Turkey are examined in two parts; such as before and after the 1980s.

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