Social Municipalism Practices in Turkey

Man is by nature a biological, psychological, social, and spiritual being. It is also natural for man to have problems, needs, and demands related to these dimensions. Therefore, there is a necessity to meet man's needs in the bio-psycho-social and spiritual spheres. However, people cannot fully meet all of these needs with their own means. The most important cornerstones in meeting these needs of individuals are of course family, close relatives, neighbors, and non-governmental organizations. However, in terms of institutional meaning and continuity, the most important institution is the state. Every individual knows that the state has to meet the basic human needs of its citizens and expects this from the state. Our country, as a social law state, is obliged to realize universally accepted economic and social rights. The social state is obligated to treat its citizens with the principle of social security and social justice. The Republic of Turkey has shared some of its social service responsibilities, which it must undertake as a state to fulfill the requirements of this social state principle, with municipalities, which are one of the local administrations.

This study examines the activities of municipalities, which are local government units, within this scope, which are among the fundamental functions of the social state and should actually be considered a social service activity, but are expressed as “social municipalism.” Within the scope of this study, a comparison was made by including the social municipalism activities primarily carried out by Ümraniye Municipality in Ümraniye between 1994, the year social municipalism emerged, and 2007, and then the activities of metropolitan, provincial, district, and town municipalities in Turkey that engage in social municipalism. It was determined that social municipalism services are a social service activity, that carrying out these activities contributes significantly to meeting the basic needs of our people, and that they perform many positive functions.

Publication Date: 2021

ISBN: 978-605-9596-49-7

Number of Prints: 1st Edition

Language: Turkish

Number of Pages: 268

Publisher: Üsküdar University Publications - 44