Urbanization policies under programs of political parties in Turkey

Abstract

The urbanization phenomenon, which increasingly continued after 2nd World War, became an issue that political powers had to deal with. In this period, which Turkey has also experienced, the political parties had to place policies that might directly or indirectly affect the urbanization process in their programs. When the Turkish political parties' urbanization policies in their programs are considered, it is understood that a three-way classification is possible. The political parties, which place the idea that urbanization should be made with state-centered policies and in a planned manner, comprise a group according to this classification. The parties, which place the idea that the activities such as public works (road, port, electricity, etc.) should be done by political powers but the other basic dynamics of urbanization (commerce, industry, etc.) should be left to civil society, forms the second group. Even though the parties in the third group mentioned the policies that highlight the civil society in the fields of industry and commerce, they placed centralist and planning-based ideas about urbanization to their program. © 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.