Unions in Turkey According to the Law no5355: Improved Decentralized and Participatory Approach in Service Delivery

Within the studies conducted in Turkey since 2003 regarding the field of public administration, numerous reforms and regulations concerning the local governments have been made. The Act on Special Provincial Administration (No 5302), the Act on Metropolitan Municipality (No 5216), the Act on Municipality (No 5393), the Act on Local Government Unions (No 5355) –enacted in mid 2000s and the Act on New Metropolitan Municipality (No 6360) –enacted in 2012, have an important place among these reforms and are the illustrations of arrangements in the field of local governments. Also, by supporting the transition to the territorial administration, these acts redescribe related concepts such as the participation at local / regional level and decentralized approach while providing provincial services. Once more, the Act on Establishing Districts within the Boundaries of Metropolitan Municipalities and amending various laws (No 5747) and the Act on the Abolition of the General Directorate of Rural Services (No 5286) are also complementary tools of these reform efforts. By the laws mentioned above, the local governments would also contribute to the expansion of the population scale, running services in an effective, efficient and economical way and the prevention of waste of resources due to the recovery of dispersed settlement. For example, with the Act No 5747, if the services exceed the capacity and the scale of the districts within the metropolitan areas, they could be assigned to jurisdiction of metropolitan municipality. The Act No 5355 also foresees if the municipalities or other local authorities cannot provide services individually, they could be provided through the Unions of local authorities, aside from the metropolitan municipalities. Thus, the encouragement of the Unions in rendering of local services shows a new period has started. With the legislation in the last decade regarding decentralization, the development of local democracy and participation, the increase of the capacity of cooperation and taking responsibility at the local level are envisaged. The Act No 5355 also encourages the cooperation between local government units based on one single service and also strengthen legally. Within the Act No 5355 which is the first direct legislation specific to the Local Governments Unions that have joint tasks in the service areas, the analysis of these Unions constitute the main purpose of our study. In addition, this paper aims to evaluate whether the legislative regulations handed by the Act provide opportunities that stimulates local potential by enabling more participative, transparent and functional services.