CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOs) IN TURKEY: HISTORY, THEORIES AND ISSUES EMRAH AYHAN Envronmental Protecton Quas Publc Goods and Servces Human Rghts Anmal Rghts Partnershp Respect Lmted State Power Socal Captal Global Acton Hegemony Market Falure Market Economy Private Relgous Identty Volunteerng Common Interest Sector Civil Society Woman Rghts (Third Sector) Democracy Ethnc Identty Phlanthropy Despotzm Voluntary Falure Public Charty Sector Human Rghts Cultural Identty Conct and Peace Soldarty Government Falure Thrd Sector Humantaran Ad Dsadvantaged Groups Independent Cvl Socety Market Falure CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOs) IN TURKEY: HISTORY, THEORIES AND ISSUES EMRAH AYHAN 2020 Copyright © 2020 by iksad publishing house All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Institution of Economic Development and Social Researches Publications® (The Licence Number of Publicator: 2014/31220) TURKEY TR: +90 342 606 06 75 USA: +1 631 685 0 853 E mail: [email protected] www.iksadyayinevi.com It is responsibility of the author to abide by the publishing ethics rules. Iksad Publications – 2020© ISBN: 978-625-7139-97-7 Cover Design: İbrahim KAYA October / 2020 Ankara / Turkey Size = 16 x 24 cm ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book was prepared from my PhD thesis, namely “Factors Explaining Size and Organizational Performance of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs): Multiple Regression Analysis For CSOs in Turkey” supervised by Prof. Dr. Murat ÖNDER whom I would like to express my sincere appreciation for his guidance, advice, criticism, encouragements and insight throughout my academic life since I met him. This book would not be possible without his significant contributions. I should also thank to my family, and Prof. Dr. Yılmaz BİNGÖL, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Akif ÖZER, Prof. Dr. Adem ÇAYLAK, Assist. Prof. Dr. Güliz DİNÇ, Nadia LAHDİLİ, İlyas BALCI, Mustafa ÜNLÜ and other faculty members and friends for giving me never- ending support, patience and encouragement throughout my academic journey. i ii CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOs) IN TURKEY: HISTORY, THEORIES AND ISSUES PREFACE The idea of conducting research on “civil society organizations” (CSOs), and writing a book have emanated some major processes throughout my life. The first time I heard about the concept of CSO was on August 17, 1999. I was studying in Fethiye primary school in Bursa province, where I was born, when a devastating earthquake struck Western Marmara region of Turkey, causing thousands of deaths and injuries in and around Gölcük, İzmit. Although we felt this earthquake very badly, nothing happened to our homes and family members in Bursa. But still my family and I had to live in a hand- made tent for 2 weeks due to risk of another earthquake. Two days after the earthquake, my mom and I went to visit my aunt living in Yalova province, where also many people were injured and died, because we could not contact her. Upon our arrival, we heard nothing but silence, saw ruins, and witnessed funeral coaches carrying death bodies. I was expecting to see a lot of bulldozers, trucks and ambulances to help people who were still under the collapsed buildings. On the contrary, I realized that the resources and opportunities of the state were not sufficient to help all these people, who died, injured or luckily still alive under the collaped buildings. Nothing was moving around; it was very quiet. There were only voluntary associations and people who came to meet victims’ needs such as foods, drinks, clothes and tents. The limited availability of resources was met by unlimited motivation and venture. I realized that this tradegy revealed a very significant solidarity iii CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOs) IN TURKEY: HISTORY, THEORIES AND ISSUES between people by volunterrism across the country. Then, we finally found out that my aunt and her family are alive and safe, sheltered in a tent for their safety. We went back to Bursa, and I watched news about well-known voluntary organizations like KIZILAY (Turkish Red Crescent) and AKUT (Search and Rescue Associations), in addition to voluntary people who were actively and bravely helping people in the cities where the earthquake struck very badly. Our society appreciated intervention of these organizations and volunteers, and this situation dramatically increased the awareness and importance of other CSOs and volunteering in terms of humanitarian aid in Turkey. At that time, I was also happy to learn about this type of voluntary organizations and volunteering that provide help for people in times of distress. Secondly, I was working as an assistant of a lawyer in Bursa during summer holidays between 2007 and 2009 when I was in high school. I saw different signboards of “Fellow Countryman Associations” (Hemşehri Dernekleri) and “Professional Solidarity Associations” (Mesleki Dayanışma Dernekleri) on the buildings close to the main courthouse of Bursa where I worked. I learned that these organizations are expanding and strengthening their networks, providing financial assistance, scholarships, occupational support and solidarity for their members. In 2009, I was an undergraduate student at METU (Middle East Technical University), and started to look for scholarship to cover my education. I found out that there are many iv CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOs) IN TURKEY: HISTORY, THEORIES AND ISSUES associations that provide scholarships for hardworking students who need financial support in the form of scholarship. At that time, I was happy to learn about this type of voluntary organizations that aim to facilitate education in Turkey. Thirdly, I learned about theories of well-known scholars like Karl Marx, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Antonio Gramsci, Emile Durkheim, John Locke, Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber and other famous thinkers during theoretical courses in the department of Political Science and Public Administration at Middle East Technical Unversity. For example, Hegel describes the sphere of civil society as “a genuine form of society, a ‘universal family’ which makes collective demands on its members and has collective responsibilities toward them” (Hegel, 1821: PR § 239). On the other hand, Gramsci defines civil society as an integral part of the state hegemony because “civil society is the arena wherein the ruling class extends and reinforces its power by non-violent means” (Buttigieg, 1995: 26). Finally, Tocqueville argues that voluntary associations are important part of the society because they encourage social participation and include people who have different backgrounds and interests in the local communities. He adds that civil society balances the relations between individual interests and central state. Although there were negative assumptions about civil society like consideration of CSOs as a tool serving capitalist interests of bourgeois class or state hegemony, I was still willing to learn about the positive role of CSOs such as intermediating between state power v CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOs) IN TURKEY: HISTORY, THEORIES AND ISSUES and individuals, encouraging social and political participation, and providing humanitarian aid, public goods and services (e.g., education, health and consultancy) for the society. Finally, I embarked on my academic journey the fields of political science and public administration with academic publications (e.g., conference papers, articles and book chapters) since I started working as research assistant in 2015. In one of my articles, namely “New Public Service: A Door to Governance” (Ayhan and Önder, 2017), my PhD advisor and I evaluated whether there is a paradigm shift in public administration using comparative analysis of four different approaches as demonstrated below. In this publication, I intended to demonstrate that civil society has recently been considered as a new sector, namely “third sector”, like public and private sectors in the world. Therefore, public institutions, private sector organizations, and CSOs collaborate to deliver public goods and services for the society. The four public administration approached are summarized as follows: In the Traditional Public Administration approach, mainly based on Weberian hierarchical bureacratic model, public goods and services are exclusively provided by the state. However, the efficiency of this traditional approach was questioned due to some developments during the 1970s and the 1980s such as economic crises, growing public debt, new expectations and interests of modern citizens, appearance of New Right Governments that pursued neo- liberal policies, convergence of public policies in different countries vi CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOs) IN TURKEY: HISTORY, THEORIES AND ISSUES by globalization processes, and increasing impact of global organizations like OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), IMF (International Monetary Foundation) and the World Bank Group. The New Public Management approach emerged as an alternative to traditional public administration. In this approach, which is based on ideas such as “managerialism”, “public choice”, “market-based public administration”, “post-bureaucratic paradigm”, and “enterprising government”, public goods and