Municipality system in Niger and Turkey: A comparative local government perspective

This study examines municipality systems of the Republic of Niger and the Republic of Turkey in terms of five common criteria: (1) historical development and reform process; (2) types, organs and administration; (3) authority, functions and responsibilities; (4) revenues and expenditures; (5) intergovernmental relations on the basis of autonomy and decentralization. These two countries, located in divergent geographies, have intrinsic historical evolution processes, different social, political and administrative culture and economic development levels. However, they both have some common political and administrative characteristics as well. Specifically, the impact of the French administrative tradition, the system of administrative jurisdiction, and unitary and centralist character of the two countries' similar features that lead us to presume that they are comparable. Analyzing two countries in the context of certain criteria is thought to bring about the possibility of exchange of experience and lesson-drawing with regard to municipality reform in both countries. This study is composed of three chapters. The first chapter includes both the approach and methodology of comparative public administration and the research design. Municipality system in Niger is investigated in the second and the Turkish municipality system in the third chapter regarding the common criteria. As a conclusion, although both countries have divergent social, political, historical and economic characteristics, but they can learn some policies and implementations from each other. While Turkey can transfer some certain policies from Niger, such as metropolitan municipalities that have a special statute, Niger can draw lessons from Turkey regarding the administration of municipal councils, the experience of metropolitan municipalities, reforms of scale, finance of municipalities etc.