Evaluating the effectiveness of public participation in a local government in Turkey: the case of Bursa Nilüfer Municipality

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2022-9
Temel, Eren Can
It is expected that decisions taken by administrative units meet needs and demands of citizens. Ensuring public participation in decision-making processes emerges as a method for reflecting perspectives of citizens especially in local governments. For this purpose, different participation tools are utilized, such as petitions, municipal call centers, participatory budgeting events, city councils, and neighborhood committees etc.; however, the effectiveness of these participation methods were not adequately addressed in the literature. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of public participation within borders of Nilüfer Municipality, which differs from other municipalities with its unique practices regarding public participation, including neighborhood committees, as a case study. The evaluation in this study is based on perceptions of the 23 sampled Nilüfer City Council members and administrative staff, and sampled representatives of neighborhood committee members in Nilüfer City Council, analyzed through the face-to-face interviews. Interview questions were developed on the basis of the review of the literature about measuring effectiveness of public participation, and considered the following dimensions/criteria: methods/tools of local public participation, level of public participation, impacts/effects of public participation on the municipality, evaluation of neighborhood committee practice, enablers and barriers of local public participation in the municipality, attitudes of the municipal administration towards public participation. According to the findings, democracy could develop and local needs could be met with local participation of citizens. Neighborhood committees are local participation practices that have a great importance in line with this purpose.

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Citation Formats
E. C. Temel, “Evaluating the effectiveness of public participation in a local government in Turkey: the case of Bursa Nilüfer Municipality,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2022.