Municipality in the Turkish Law: Concept and Content

Abstract

There are two types of urban municipalities in Turkey: urban (the administrative center of a district with the status of a “city” or a settlement with a population of 5,000 or more) and metropolitan (provincial municipalities with a total population of over 750,000). The subject of the present article, the author has chosen to analyses the categorical content of the first level municipality in the administrative doctrine and law of Turkey. The treatment of the topic is justified from several angles. There are no scientific articles and monographs devoted to the Turkish administrative doctrinal understanding of the category “municipality” in the Russian literature. The lack of study of the subject in Russian literature does not allow a comparative analysis of the categorical apparatus of the legislation of two countries: Russia and Turkey, and therefore does not allow comparing the experience of formation and development of local government in Turkey when characterizing organizational models, legal, territorial and economic foundations of local government (governance) in different countries. In Turkish legal science, considerable experience has been accumulated in the study of the practical activities of municipalities. The purpose of the present article is to determine the basic features of the first level municipality established by the Turkish legislator, such as urban area and city territory, status of public legal entity, administrative and financial autonomy of the municipality, and administrative trusteeship as an element of decentralization of management in the executive power system of the country. On the basis of methodology of formal-logical analysis and comparative jurisprudence, the peculiarities of essential characteristics of the municipality are revealed. The conclusion is made that the legal basis for the existence of municipalities is associated with the legal structure of the administrative structure of the state. The understanding of the municipality is significantly influenced by the unitary form of state structure and decentralized administrative mode of government in the Republic of Turkey. It is argued that a municipality endowed with the status of a public legal entity differs significantly from a private legal entity. One of the problematic and at the same time important features in the understanding of the municipality is the administrative trusteeship. An analysis of the country’s legislation suggests an emerging trend of strengthening local autonomy by reducing the practice of trusteeship.