Effect of the Law No 6360 on service provision in coastal municipalities: Case of Kuşadası Municipality

With the Law No 6360, the local government system has gone through significant changes or has been affected in certain areas. These are mainly; Administrative structuring, duties, powers and responsibilities, distribution of financial resources, legal personality and autonomy of local governments, coordination, personnel structure, bureaucracy, provision and execution of local services, and changes in political geography can be considered. Although 10 years have passed since the Law No 6360 was published in 2012, the problems and effects it has caused still continue. The effect of this is seen mostly in the metropolitan municipalities and district municipalities. In addition to the existing problems, different aspects of these problems emerge especially in coastal municipalities that have gained metropolitan status by law, such as Kuşadası. Even today, its impact is felt by both municipal administrators and citizens. In this research, the mentioned effects are examined on Kuşadası Municipality, which is a tourism and coastal municipality, that was exposed to this change with the Law No 6360. In this context, in addition to literature review, this research is based on a field study that includes a semi-structured interview form with the district governor, deputy mayors, municipal managers, other public administrators and neighborhood administrators,to represent the municipal administration in Kuşadası, about the new situation caused by the Law No 6360 in terms of service provision, its positive and negative sides, problems and solution proposals. The main part of the study is the municipal field managers and neighborhood administrators who have the first duties and responsibilities of the local service provision in Kuşadası Municipality. In this analysis, it is aimed to evaluate the service provision elaborately in the semi-structured interview which is made from the eyes of the actors. In the light of the data obtained from this field research, the positive and negative developments between the situation before Law No 6360 and the current situation, the reasons of them and the solution proposals have been studied. KEY WORDS: Coastal Municipalities, Kuşadası municipality, Law No 6360, Metropolitan Municipalities, Service Provision.