A comparison of the social municipal practises in Turkey: Kadıköy and Esenler municipalities

This thesis, which aims to investigate whether any differences can be observed in terms of the consequences occurred as a result of social municipal practices implemented by different municipalities that are represented by the political parties with different political ideologies, consists of three main sections. In the first section, the emergence and development of the "Social State" in the world and in Turkey was mentioned. Besides, the transformation it had gone through and its effect on the mentality of public administration were discussed. In the second section, within the framework of the new public administration approach, the transformation of the classical municipalism into the "Social Municipalism" and the new duties, powers and responsibilities undertaken by the municipalities were investigated. In addition, the legal basis of social municipalism and the basic problems encountered in terms of social municipal practices in Turkey were examined. In the third section, public services provided within the framework of social municipalism between 2014 and 2018 by Kadıköy and Esenler district municipalities, which were managed by different political parties for the same period (5 year operating period for local administrations), were investigated and compared in detail through the annual operating reports published by the municipalities. Taking all the findings of this study into consideration, it would be right to say that Kadıköy Municipality has given the image of a contemporary local administration which is connected to universal values, whereas, Esenler Municipality has mostly portrayed an "Islamist Municipality" for the period mentioned above. In addition, it can be concluded that a secular administrative mentality should be adopted and gender equality should be provided in order to ensure that social municipal practices can be carried out impartially, fairly and without excluding or othering any people. At this point, it is also important to keep the political ideologies away from the decision making processes and the provision of services. Keywords: Social State, Social Municipality, Kadıköy, Republican People's Party, Esenler, Justice and Development Party.