The applicability of strategic planning in municipalities: The case of Municipality of Çanakkale

With the great changes and developments in economic, political, culturel and technological areas took place in the 20th and 21st centuries, a changing proces have been witnesed to in public administration. Parallel with legal regulations put into practice. As a solution to the problems in public administration new management techniques have been started to be used in public administration. As a result this process, municipalities ahave also started to implement.The aim of this study is to examine the applicability of strategic planning in public administration in general and in municipalities in particular. In this context, strategy, strategic planning and strategic management consepts are explained briefly. Then, strategic planning proces in municipalities are discussed by evalıating the legal and institutional structure of municipalities.The last part of this study includes the field Çanakkale Municipality. In the field survey, the thoughts of council members and municipality staff on strategic planning, their evaluations on this process and their thoughts on strategic planning are revealed.