Examination of mukhtars' perception of social assistance in the context of socio-demographic variables

Mukhtars, who are administratively responsible for villages and neighborhoods, are managers who are elected by receiving the majority of the votes of those residing in their locality, are not representatives of any political party, and represent the village legal entity. Especially in cultures where local administrations and traditional lifestyles continue, headmen are an important management position for the geographies within their area of responsibility. For this reason, they are directly responsible for every action to be taken in the relevant social areas. One of the duties and responsibilities of headmen is social assistance. Social assistance is the general name of the services provided to people who cannot meet their basic needs, and in the case of local administrations, the most important element of the resource mechanisms that will bring social assistance to individuals are headmen. The basis of this study is the headmen working in Sakarya province, and by measuring their perception of social assistance, the role that headmen can play in delivering social assistance to those in need has been tried to be revealed. This study, which is a quantitative research in which data on the subject is collected from participants through a survey, aims to reveal how social aid recipients and social aid themselves are evaluated by headmen. In the study, the opinions of muhtars that social aid increases unregistered work, that it does not remove people receiving aid from working life, that the wide variety of aid does not drive them to unregistered work, and that the social aid system also has an effect on transferring poverty to the next generation, were evaluated and evaluated at every stage of the social aid system, including planning. It has been concluded that the mukhtar institution must be included in the system when determining stakeholders.