Licensing non-sanitary businesses by municipalities in terms of better regulation

This study is an attempt to examine the procedure of licensing non-sanitary businesses by municipalities in terms of better regulation. The study focuses mainly on the common implementation problems (or deviations) of the Regulation Regarding to Opening Workplace and Licensing Business (Official Gazette, vol.25902, August 10, 2005), which is based on the principles of better regulation. The study argues that there are many deviations in the implementation of the Regulation due to largely bureaucracy's resistance to change.The study consists of a general introduction, three chapters, a set of conclusions and recommendations. Chapter one critically reviews the literature of better regulation to make a theoretical framework. Chapter two analyses the procedure of licensing non-sanitary businesses in Turkey in terms of better regulation. Chapter three presents main findings of an empirical study carried out in Aydın, İncirliova and Çine in order to find out main implementation problems (length of time and increased number of documents) of the Regulation and their causes. The study concludes that bureaucracy's resistance to change is apparently the main obstacle to implement a better regulation policy.Keywords: Better Regulation, Non-Sanitary Businesses, Licensing, and Bureaucracy's Resistance to Change