Strategic planning process in municipalities, vertical and horizontal integration problem and the case of Istanbul

The aim of this study is to discuss at the level of Istanbul (vertically upper scale plans, development plan, governmental plan, medium term plan, medium term financial plan, annual plan, area plan and environmental plan, and horizontally metropolitan municipality strategic plan, special provincial administration strategic plan and strategic plans of district municipalities within metropolitan municipal borders) the integration problems at vertical and horizontal levels of municipalities axis posed by the strategic planning implementations brought by the reforms made after 2002 in Turkey within the scope of new public administration approach and to offer proposals relating to the steps to be taken to eliminate these problems.The study is composed of five parts. The first part dwells upon the theoretical frame of strategic planning concept. The second part handles the theoretical frame of strategic planning process at municipalities. The development process of municipality concept in Turkey; the localization and the strategic planning process of municipalities in the light of the reforms in administrative fields with the effect of new public administration approach are elaborated in this part.The third part evaluates the to be taken into consideration at vertical level and provincial special administration at horizontal level while preparing strategic plans in accordance with local government system in Turkey. The fourth part labors to identify the problems towards vertical integration in strategic planning taking Istanbul into consideration as Istanbul is the most prominent metropolitan city in economic, political, social, cultural, technological etc. fields. In this context the development plans, government programs, medium-term program, medium-term financial plan, annual program, regional plan and environmental plan are studied at vertical level comparative to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Strategic Plan and the said problems were studied separately as the problems originating from legal and administrative, management culture and temporal causes.The fifth part deals with the subject of horizontal integration in strategic planning at Istanbul level. Istanbul Provincial Special Administration Strategic Plan and the strategic plans of certain district municipalities, taking the emphasis made in the vision of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality into consideration, are studied and compared to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Strategic Plan. The integration problems at horizontal level are studied separately as the problems originating from legal and administrative and management culture. In this part, integration problem which occurs in the horizontal level has been examined as legal, administrative and administrative culture problems separately. Main problems here are putting into practice some new practical systems without strategically handling administration and the system and understanding of strategic planning adopted for public administration and municipalities as well as the strategic planning supervision. In addition, solution offers are discussed regarding these issues in the example of Istanbul.Finally, the study is concluded by offering the measures to be taken against the integration problems at vertical and horizontal levels in strategic planning process within the framework of Istanbul.