Change in regional development policy in the process of transition from Government to Governance: The case of regional Development Agencies in Turkey

Abstract

Change in regional development policy in the process of transition from Government to Governance: The case of regional Development Agencies in Turkey The crisis of capitalism in the 1970s caused Keynesians policies to be questioned and neo liberal policies where the focus is on less state and less intervention to emerge. The process of change has shown itself in the field of production and management. Flexible manufacturing has been replaced with mass production and the old concept of government has been replaced with the concept of governance. In this process, devolution of authority of the nation states and attendance of different agents to the decision making process has required new institutional structure which functions as a mediator in the implementation of these policies. This process has led the emergence of a new structure called regional development agencies at the regional level. In this study, it is aimed to analyze the change of regional concept and the establishment of development agencies in Turkey by a questionnaire revealing the development committee's opinion about regional development agencies.