Analysis of impacts of legal regulations about metropolitan municipality administration on rural areas: The case of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality

Turkey has come up with the legal regulations for administration of Metropolitan Municipalities for the first time in 1984 with the Law No. 3030. Till then, many other regulations on the development and the administration of Metropolitan Municipalities have been carried out and in year 2014 the number of Metropolitan Municipalities has come to 16. In year 2014, the Law No. 6360 has come into effect that has caused an increase in the number of Metropolitan Municipalities from 16 to 30, and has widen their administrative borders to their provincial borders. All these regulations are sometimes for the development of the new metropolitan municipalities, and sometimes for widening their administrative borders. In 28 cities, Special Provincial Administrations have been ceased to be in effect (except the ones in the city of İstanbul and the city of Kocaeli), hundreds of town municipalities have been abolished and all the villages, forest villages and towns within these areas are named as Neighborhood. This work is limited with the analysis of impacts of the Laws regulated for Metropolitan Municipalities upon the rural areas. The case study is done within the borders of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality. Within the borders of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality, a face-to-face inquiry of a number of 620 has been done with the Headmen of Villages turned into Neighborhoods, people lay duties to rural areas, people have service benefits from rural areas, and people affected indirectly from these services and duties. Inquiries have been analyzed with Chi-squared Test and Logistik Regression Analysis. The case study has come with the results such as; it is inappropriate not to take into account the opinions of the former representatives of abolished Municipalities and the public while regulating the related Laws, different type of Laws can be regulated without turning the Villages into Neighborhoods, people living in underpopulated areas can have more active role in the decisions of the Local Administrations but after the Administrations are gathered with the Local Municipalities, people have less chance to follow and to take role in the decisions of the Local Municipalities; however, there has become an expectation that the values of real estates will rise as the implementation plans are going to be done much more faster, and municipal services of good quality are going to be more.