The changing roles of governors and district governors in Turkey, 2000 - 2014

Abstract

This thesis explores how and to what extent the public administration reforms introduced in the 2000s have affected the roles of governors and district governors in Turkey and to identify the intended and unintended consequences of the public administration reforms and their implications for roles of governors and district governors. This topic is important because in 2001, Turkey was hit by a large economic crisis which affected the country negatively. After that economic crisis, many public administration reforms, which were inspired by some of the ideas of the New Public Management, were introduced in the 2000s in Turkey in order to ensure the effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, transparency, openness and accountability of the public administration and the delivery of public services by reconstructing how the public administration operates. The public administration reforms have changed the structure, roles, and responsibilities of both the central and local governments, as well as the traditional understanding of the public administrators. After these reforms were implemented, the main administrative structure of the provincial administrative system was shaken, with the roles, powers, responsibilities, and even the reason for the governors and district governors' existence being called into question.

This research is done by conducting both a survey (with 304 out of the 1426 responding) and semi-structured elite interviews with 65 governors, deputy governors, and district governors. The major findings of the research are, firstly, that the classical traditional and historically important roles and powers of the governors and district governors have been eroded with local governments gaining power and roles at their expense. So, secondly, the mayors are now more prominent than the civil administrators. Three further effects on governors and district governors are found. One is that their roles have become increasingly politicised and the other is that they have had to shift their philosophy from the state-centric view to the citizen-centric one. And lastly, new roles have emerged.

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ORCID for Roderick Rhodes: orcid.org/0000-0002-1886-2392

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