Regulatory boards as an new model for Turkish public administration

The independent public authorities which dates back to the end of 1800?s in the United States of America, have occupied an important place in the public administrations of the countries resulted from the transformation and change waves in the most part of the world. That was due to an attempt to achieve a balance between fundamental rights & freedoms and market mechanisms. Privatization of public services which had been delivered by the state monopoly necessitated redefinition of the role of the State on the free competition of market which ultimately led to emergence of new administrative structures. Most of the governments opted out establishment of regulatory independent authorities after some successful examples were seen in the international arena. Structure of public regulatory authorities demonstrated various forms depending on political, economic and social systems of the regarded country; however, they all necessarily have administrative and financial autonomy as well as new organization structure which are out of traditional hierarchical system. Based on these facts, Turkish public regulatory authorities have been established in order to accomplish an efficient and politically independent public management system. Due to the lack of a holistic framework as well as disappearance of the reasons on which their introduction were based; some debates have started recently on their responsibilities, authorities, administrative structures, their budgets, their independence and finally their accountability. Today, these debates have concentrated on their relation with political power, their accountability and their performance. It can be argued that, Turkish public regulatory authorities experience is not sufficient enough as to meet the expectation from these structures, However, it should be admitted that the approach and level of adoption by the political institutions, market players and bureaucratic elites have also important determinants for the success of these authorities. Due to their financial and administrative autonomy, emergence of personal capabilities instead of nepotic preferences are indispensable requirement for these authorities to attain the desired esteem and trust and gaining support from other bureaucratic circles. If these goals are achieved, the success of the regulatory authorities will be guaranteed. Defining the position and place of the regulatory agencies in comparison with their international counterparts, their establishment procedures, their development, scrutinizing their structural and functional traits and more importantly, analysis?s of some debates took place on the axis of these agencies will contribute to the development of regulatory agency system and improve their performance level. It is hoped that this study would serve to the effective and efficient work of regulatory agencies in Turkey, in the light of relatively short experiences and scarce literature work.