A socialist and populist local government experience: Hozat Municipality (2004-2014)

Local governments are a political structure influenced and transformed by many intricate group relationships, phenomena and mechanisms. In the process dominated by capitalism in Western Europe, the modern-nation state was designed as a mean of political organization; they served as tools of local substitution for central states. Modern-nation states have reproduced local governments in terms of political needs. The functions of local governments were diversified as a means of articulating the local to the system and absorbing local tensions by the system. Therefore, discussions on local government are related to the structural transformations of modern nation-states. Since the last quarter of the 20th century, local governments have been restructured in terms of structural and financial aspects by means of laws that enable the circulation of national and international capital in the period defined as globalization. Public services, which are the duty of local governments, were commodified and transferred to market mechanisms. The experiences of local administration such as alternative municipalism, populist municipalism, socialist municipalism and socialist municipalism have been able to take place to a certain extent within the dynamics of both periods and their examples are still developing today. The Paris Commune of 1871, the municipal socialism that emerged in England in the 19th century, the Soviet (parliamentary) experience of the USSR; Autonomous Municipalities of Zapatista, 1979 Fatsa Municipality, 1973-1980 "New Municipality Movement", 1 May Neighborhood Experience, Marinaleda Municipality Experience, İzmir Gültepe Municipality Experience, İzmir Dikili Municipality Experience, Porto Alegre Participatory Budget Application, Argentine Neighborhood Assemblies etc can be counted among them. These examples in different parts of the world have in common the alternative local government experiences called publicness. In this study, Hozat Municipality experience is considered as an example at the borders of a "socialist" and "populist" local government. Ten years of municipal experience between 2004 and 2014 are evaluated in terms of their similarity and originality through out all national and international experiences. Keywords: Centralism, globalization, local government, alternative municipality, Hozat Municipality