ÖZETAVRUPA BİRLİĞİ MALİ YARDIM POLİTİKASI VE TÜRKİYE – AB MALİ YARDIMLARININ İÇERİĞİİkinci Dünya Savaşı sonrası birleşme hareketlerinden biri olan Avrupa Birliği, kuruluş felsefesi olan "dayanışma" ilkesini uygulamaya koyarak kendi içinde ekonomik ve sosyal dengesizlikleri ortadan kaldırmayı amaçlamıştır. Avrupa Birliği bu amaçla kendi üyelerine yapmakta olduğu mali yardımları, aday ülkelere ve aday olmayan diğer ülkelere de yaparak mali yardımların önemi ve çeşitliliği artmıştır. Hibe veya kredi şeklinde yapılan bu mali yardımlardan ülkemiz de, aday ülke olarak yararlanmaktadır. Bu çalışma ile Avrupa Birliği mali yardım politikası ve ülkemizin bu doğrultuda mali yardımlardan yararlanma süreci anlatılmaya çalışılmıştır. Avrupa Birliği mali yardımlarından en çok yararlanan üye ülkeler; Yunanistan, İspanya, Portekiz ve İrlanda gibi az gelişmiş ülkeler olup, bu ülkeler yapılan mali yardımlar sonucu kayda değer ekonomik gelişmeler göstermiştir. Türkiye ise aday ülke statüsüyle yapılan mali yardımlardan yeterli ölçüde yararlanamamıştır.ABSTRACTEUROPEAN UNION FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE POLICY AND THE CONTENT TURKEY – EUROPEAN UNION FINANCIAL ASSISTANCEEU is the unificiation movement after World War II that aimed to disappear inequalities regarding economical and social imbalances as practicing "solidarity" principle which is the main philosophy of the establishment. With this purpose, EU expanded it's contributions and contribution types not only towards the members but also the candidate and non-candidate countries .In this case, the importance of the contribution has been increased. As the candidate, our country has also been granted with these financial supports as donation or credit With this work, EU Financial assistance policy and process of benefiting from this financial assistance have been tried to explained. The candidate countries which have been benefiting from EU Financial assistances mostly are the underdeveloped countries Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. The above mentioned countries have been remarkably developed as the result of having these financial assistances. However, Turkey could not have been benefited sufficiently from the financial assistance with the candidate country status.
1. Introduction Important political, administrative and economic changes occurred in Turkey and the world in the last 50 years, especially during post-1980 neo-liberal era. Decentralization, rapid urbanization and metropolization processes that emerged by means of these changes have boosted authority, spending and responsibility of local governments. Local governments gradually came to the fore in the process of service delivery. However, especially, allocation of self-income and resources to local governments have not shown a similar level of increase. In this study, this dilemma is analyzed in cases of municipalities in Turkey. The purpose of this study is to reveal the contradiction between the increased burden of duty and income of the municipalities. By this way, it is aimed to provide a scientific basis for policy makers in solving self-income problems. In this context, the situation of the municipalities in Turkey has been analyzed. The case is studied with both theoretical and numerical data and the problem has been clearly demonstrated. 2. Trends of Fiscal Autonomy, Fiscal Decentralization and Decentralization Although a single, universal and unique definition cannot be made, decentralization is generally defined as the transfer/assignment of decision-making responsibility, power and authority of resource creation from higher level administration (central government) to lower levels of administration (regions, local governments and NGOs) (Cheema & Rondinelli, 2007: 1, Leung, 2004: 1, Edquist, 2005: 9, Yuliani, 2004, Hinsz vd., 2006: 2, Eryılmaz, 2002: 225). According to the definition of Litvack ve Seddom (1999: 2) and World Bank, decentralization is the transfer of authority and responsibility for public functions from the central government to subordinate or quasi-independent government organizations or the private sector (Keskin, 2008: 2). Fiscal decentralization forms the financial aspect of devolution to regional and local administrations. Moreover, European and American writers use terms like "centrallocal (or intergovernmental) financial relations" and "fiscal federalism" in order to refer to fiscal decentralization. The first phase of fiscal decentralization is the division of spending responsibilities and revenue sources between levels of government (national, regional, local etc.). The second phase is the amount of discretion given to regional and local governments to determine their expenditures and revenues (both in aggregate and detail). This discretion gives regional and local governments the ability to determine their budgets by levying taxes and fees and allocating resources (Davey, 2003: 1). The essence of fiscal decentralization is the authority and responsibility of subnational governments to finance their local services to a certain extent (Ebel & Yılmaz, 2002: 34). In other words, fiscal decentralization occurs when higher levels of government cede influence over budgets and financial decisions to lower levels (Sharma, 2008). Decentralization and fiscal decentralization trend that has developed in the framework of thinking that local governments should be strengthened has also created the infrastructure of financial autonomy. Fiscal Autonomy aims to enable local governments to have adequate, healthy and sustainable resources in order to ensure the institutionalization of democracy and effective implementation of their services. In that framework, it is defined as local governments' fulfillment of their duties and responsibilities independently from the center. To achieve this aim, local governments manage/spend assets and resources in line with their laws (in accordance with the interests of the local population). They also make budgets and borrowings (Ulusoy & Akdemir, 2009: 260-265, Yontar & Dağ, 2014: 150, Çelik, 2013: 22). 3. Increased Responsibility of Municipalities as a Result of Urbanization and Metropolization in Turkey The urbanization rate was very slow in the early years of the Republic of Turkey. The population living in rural areas began to migrate to urban areas in the 1950s due to improvements in transportation infrastructure, change of the land ownership regime, mechanization and modernization of agriculture, technological developments, increase in industrialization, and other economic/social changes. In particular, migration to cities increased in line with the population growth. This accelerated the need for better highway networks and settlement areas, and new housing (Tosun, 2015: 202- 203, Şahin, 2013: 79). There have been serious population increases in cities such as Istanbul, Izmir, Adana, Ankara and Bursa. This trend caused significant problems in terms of urban services in these cities (Keleş, 2009: 289). Local governments and especially municipalities took on the most important tasks of on-site analysis of the mentioned problems and solving them with practical - permanent proposals. 4. Comparative Analysis of Revenues and Expenditures of Municipalities in Turkey Municipalities became center-dependent units from financial, political and administrative aspects. It is mainly due to inefficient income structure that is dependent on central transfers, not on self-income. It is clear that this situation causes many negative effects on the functioning of municipalities. However, inadequacy of self-income or dependency needs to be demonstrated with numerical data in order to see the adverse trend in a concrete way. This enables a comparison in an international scale and identification of appropriate sample countries for the planned changes for these comparisons. Furthermore, it becomes possible to analyze financial interdependence among different municipal levels and all municipalities. Through detailed assessments, the dilemma between metropolization and fiscal decentralization in Turkey has been put forward in this study. 5. Basic Financial Problems of Municipalities in Turkey The main financial problems of the municipalities can be listed as lack of sustainable revenue sources, ineffective use of available resources, over-dependence on shares transferred from general budget tax revenues collection, inadequacy of self-income sources (Yüksel, 2004). Because of these financial problems, there are many negative situations faced at the local level. 6. Conclusion There is a trend of urbanization and metropolization in Turkey. 93% of the total population lives within the municipal boundaries. 84% of the population within municipal boundaries is within the borders of the metropolitan municipalities. Metropolitan municipalities have the highest burden of responsibilities. Then comes the provincial municipalities, district and town municipalities. However, amount of incomes is in the opposite order. This situation, prevents municipalities from enjoying the benefits of fiscal autonomy and fiscal decentralization. Instead, they become highly dependent on the central government. To get rid of this dilemma, a three-stage policy must be followed. Firstly, efficiency in spending should be achieved. Secondly, steps should be taken to make the most out of available income sources. Finally, municipalities should be provided with new sources of revenue in order to get rid of the fiscal dilemma. While these steps are being taken, rather than applying a general method, political characteristics and administrative, economic, cultural of Turkey should be taken into consideration and Turkey-specific system should be established.
Studie zur Finanz- und Einkommensstruktur der türkischen Kommunen und ihre Veränderungen nach der Gesetzgebung von 1981, Erläuterung verschiedener Gesetze, die die Finanzen der Kommunen betreffen und Darstellung der im 5. Fünfjahresentwicklungsplan vorgesehenen Ziele für die Kommunen. (DOI-Daw)
ÖZETToprak, halk ve egemenlik olmak üzere üç ana unsurdan oluşan devlet, üniter, federal, bölgesel ve konfederal şekilde örgütlenebilmektedir. Birbirlerine göre büyük farklılıklar gösteren bu yönetim sistemlerinde farklı özellikler sergileyen idari, siyasi ve mali yapı, aynı yönetim sistemine dahil olan ülkelerde bile büyük farklılıklar gösterebilmektedir. Mali tevzin ya da mali federalizm olarak da adlandırılan yönetimler arası mali ilişkiler kapsamında, devletin farklı siyasal yönetim kademeleri arasındaki harcama, hizmet ve gelir bölüşümü ele alınmaktadır. Bu çalışmada yönetimler arası mali ilişkilerin federal ülkelerde nasıl işlediğinin daha iyi bir şekilde anlaşılmasının sağlanabilmesi için farklı ülke örneklerine yer verilmiştir. Bu kapsamda farklı özelliklere sahip üç federal ülke olan Avustralya, Avusturya ve Meksika'nın mali yapıları ayrıntılı bir şekilde ele alınmıştır. Özellikle küreselleşme süreciyle birlikte büyük önem kazanan mali yerelleşme, görev ve sorumluluklar ile bunların karşılanması için gerekli olan gelirlerin (kaynakların) merkezi yönetimden daha alt yönetim düzeylerine (ulus-altı yönetimlere) devredilmesidir. Bu çalışma kapsamında mali yerelleşmenin federal ülkeler ile üniter ülkelerde hangi düzeylerde olduğu karşılaştırmalı bir şekilde incelenmiştir. Buna göre federal ülkelerdeki ulus-altı yönetimlerin üniter ülkelerdeki ulus-altı yönetimlere göre genel anlamda daha özerk olduğu; ancak birçok federal ülkedeki ulus-altı yönetimlerin mali özerklikleri oldukça düşük düzeyde iken çok sayıda üniter ülkedeki ulus-altı yönetimlerin mali özerkliklerinin oldukça yüksek düzeyde olduğu gözlemlenmiştir.Anahtar Kelimeler: Yönetimler Arası Mali İlişkiler; Mali Yerelleşme; Federal Ülkeler; Federalizm; Yerel Yönetimler; Avusturya; Avustralya; Meksika. ABSTRACTConsisting of land, peoples and sovereignty factors, states are organised as unitary state, federation, regional state and confederation. In these political administrative systems that differ from each other relatively, the administrative, political and fiscal structures differ even in different countries that are in the same system. Within the context of intergovenmental fiscal relations, the division of expenditures, service delivery and revenues among different political administration units of the state are investigated. In this study, different country examples are examined to reveal how intergovernmental fiscal relations in federal countries are managed. In this study, the fiscal structures of three federal countries (Australia, Austria and Mexico), which have different characteristics, are investigated. Fiscal decentralization, which means transfering assignments, responsibilities and the revenues (resources) that are required to compensate these (assignments and responsibilities) from the central (federal) government to the lower level governments (sub-national governments) has come into prominence especially with the globalization process. Within the context of this study, the degree of fiscal decentralization among unitary states and federations is cooperatively analysed. Accordingly, it has been observed that sub-national governments in federal countries are fiscally more autonomous than the sub-national governments in unitary states in general. On the other hand, it is observed that in many federal countries fiscal autonomy of sub-national governments is rather low whereas in numerous unitary states fiscal autonomy of sub-national governments is relatively in high level. Keywords: Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, Fiscal Decentralisation; Federal Countries, Federalism, Local Governments; Austria, Australia, Mexico.
