Public administration reforms on the axis of centralization and de-Centralization during Ak Party rule

Centralization means that public services are provided directly by the state legal entity. Decentralization is divided into two: political and administrative decentralization. Political decentralization occurs in federated states, while administrative decentralization occurs in both unitary states and federations. Administrative decentralization is the provision of public services by public legal personalities other than the state entity concept. Although these public legal entities are not subject to the hierarchical control of the state legal entity, they are subject to administrative tutelage. In other words, they do not have their own legislative, executive and judicial powers, constitutions, laws or sovereignty, unlike the states in federations. In order to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in providing public services, there is a need for a correct sharing of authority, duties and resources between the central and local government. In states where centralization is excessive, problems occur in public service delivery and functioning. Developed states have reformed and transformed their administrative structures to reduce centralization since the 1980s. Although Turkey has tried to make reforms within this framework under the AK Party government since 2003, there are still opinions that the level of centralization is high and reforms should be made in this area. Despite this, when reform efforts are carried out, there are those who oppose and resist these efforts. In this thesis, which aims to evaluate the public administration reforms during the AK Party period on the axis of centralization-decentralization, qualitative research methods such as literature review, document analysis and semi-structured interview methods were used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior bureaucrats who prepared the public administration reforms in the first term of the AK Party and politicians currently working in the AK Party's Local Government Presidency. Questions sought to be answered in the thesis: (1) What are the obstacles, resistances, reservations and the most intense criticisms in front of the regulations aiming to reduce centralization in Turkey and on which issues these obstacles are concentrated, (2) whether the resistances, criticisms and reservations in different legislative changes are similar or not, (3) whether there are any arrangements that AK Party cannot make within the framework of central-local relations, (4) whether the AK Party government period was divided into different periods within the framework of central-local relations, (5) whether Turkey currently needs reform within the framework of centralization-decentralization, and (6) what kind of reform should be done, if needed? As a result of the research, briefly (1) the most intense criticism and resistance to public administration reforms are the reservations about the transition from the unitary state to the federation, (2) the criticisms and resistances in different legislative changes are similar, (3) there are many regulations that the AK Party planned but could not make in its central-local relations, (4) AK Party periods can be divided into 3 different periods in terms of centralization-localization, (5) there is still a need for public administration reform in terms of both central-local relations, local governments and provincial organizations in our country, (6) in Turkey, it has been concluded that there is a need for a reform, which will strengthen local governments in terms of both authority and opportunities without violating the unitary state principle, will give local governments general authority to provide local common services, will reorganize villages and provincial organizations according to current conditions, will reconsider the metropolitan system, and will reduce increasing centralization.