Decentralisation of social policy i̇n the context of social assistance and services

Social assistance and social services could be provided centrally with a centralist approach or municipal administrations by means of subsidiarity. The preferred option is determined in accordance with characteristics of the country. Moreover, cultural, historical, demographic and geographic structures of the country directly effect on which way to be followed on the providing of social policies. However, the countries may sometimes have to adopt a system in accordance with the incidents taking place in the world and changing of conjecture as well. Social policies implementations which were mostly conducted with civil society and family until the Second World War, started to get under responsibility of the states, and social welfare state practices have started to gain more importance in the providing of social policies. In the progress of time, changes in the social structures have led to another change about social policy. The increasing number of the needy and their needs as a result of increasing population required the municipal administrations to have more role on providing of social assistance and services. On the other hand, along with the globalization, the centralized administrations transferred some of their authorizations to local units and international institutions have led to loss of power in the central authority. The stated that fell from power in the social field, has been struggling to gain effective again by means of municipal administrations. From this aspect, it can be claimed the municipal administrations to have recovered the lost state authorization. That all authorization is centered in a single point may sometimes prevent the society from getting involved in the administrations. At this point, following the including of the public in the decision-making process, decentralization may be considered a means of acquiring of democratic values. As is the case for the other public sphere, social policy practices in Turkey have a centralized structure under the influence of culture from the past. Yet, the cultural structure that has been changing and the variation of needs have revealed the necessity that a reform is to be carried out in this field in Turkey. Because the policies develop in Ankara fail to meet the needs of people living in Kars completely. Local administrators come forward thanks to the good relations with local people because of that they will be able to analyze the needs of the local society better than center administrators. Key Words: Social assistance, social services, social policy, decentralization, transfer to local, municipal administrations, subsidiarity