Public policy analysis of maritime security policies: The case of Turkey

Public policy is explained as the projected program of goals, values and practices or the things that governments have preferred to do or not to do with their frequently accepted definition. The fact that the resources used by political powers are limited, the wants and needs of society are endless, requires that governments prioritize among the programs they prefer to do or not do. This priority sequence brings with it decision-making. In this respect, decision-making means that public authorities choose or choose one of the alternative policies for the solution of public problems. Public policy analysis of the policies implemented as a result of the decisions taken, public policy analysis is carried out. Public policy analysis offer assessments of the why and how of policies applied to decision makers. Accordingly, in this research, it is aimed to give proposals for the development of Turkish Maritime Security Policies within the framework of the results obtained by analyzing Turkish Maritime Security Policies. The official policy documents of the institutions and organizations that take an active role in the construction and implementation of the Turkish Maritime Security Policies for the realization of this purpose were analyzed in the "ATLAS.ti" qualitative data analysis program with the codes prepared within the framework of the maritime security matrix. Thus, for the first time in the literature, the general picture of the Turkish Maritime Security Policies has been presented to the decision-makers. As a result of the analysis, an assessment on the correctness or inaccuracy of the policies was avoided and suggestions were made to make subsequent Turkish Maritime Security Policies more effective and efficient.