Social municipality applications: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality sample

The basic social needs such as education, health, housing is considered to be the primary task of the social state. Nevertheless, in the contemporary era of globalization along with the g-localization, the demand towards those services increase and local governments also get involved in social policy in cooperation with the central governments. Since local governments are considered to be the crucial actor to provide the local services in an efficient and effective manner, they seem to be the primary actor in social policy. This process results in the redefinition of the social policy and municipality that the social character of the municipalities becomes dominant. The concept of "social municipality" flourish in the literature and this is also true for the practice that the functions of the municipalities in social policy increase day by day. Thesis study aims to analyze the performance of "social municipality" within a chosen case of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality which is considered to be one of the best practices in social municipality in Turkey. In this manner, the study is composed of three distinct parts: in the first chapter the conceptual framework of the social municipality is provided by the analysis of the emergence and the theoretical development of the concept of the social policy, its objectives, scope, role, etc and the local side of the social policies, social municipalities. Second chapter is devoted to the analysis of the social municipality practice in Turkey that the history of the social municipalities, the legal framework and the institutional practice is covered. In the third section, the case of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality is studied in terms of (a) budget, (b) operations, and (c) organizational structure on the bases of the organizational units between 2010 – 2014. In the budget section, the portion of the social budget within the general municipal budget is studied, in the operations section social policies both in Strategic Plan and Annual Report are discussed and in the last part units providing the social services are focused in terms of their personnel and administration. There are several findings the thesis study provides which are believed to further the practice of social municipality, and the administrative recommendations are systematically stated in the Conclusion Chapter in three headings: budget, operations and organizational structure. Keywords: Social Policy, Social Municipality, Social Service and Assistance, Social Budget, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality