Muhtarlık as an Instrument of Administrative and Political Representation at the Local Scale: Interpreting Muhtarlık from the President's Perspective
AMME IDARESI DERGISI, cilt.59, sa.2, ss.219-254, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 59 Sayı: 2
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Dergi Adı: AMME IDARESI DERGISI
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Central & Eastern European Academic Source (CEEAS), Business Source Ultimate (EBSCO)
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.219-254
- Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This article examines, through discourse analysis, how the muhtarlak was repositioned by the state power at political and administrative levels both before and after the transition to the Presidential Government System in T & uuml;rkiye. In particular, the 'Muhtars Meetings' held regularly under the auspices of the Presidency since 2015, has initiated a new process concerning the way state power engages with the local level. In this study, speeches delivered by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the 'Muhtars Meetings' held between 2015 and 2024 were analysed using MaxQDA24 software, drawing on Bob Jessop's strategic-relational approach to the discussion of the state's institutional integrity, with a focus on three forms of state power: representation, internal organisation, and intervention. The findings indicate that the muhtarlak as an institution is not merely an administrative mechanism; rather, it serves as a strategic element facilitating the institutionalisation of the state's new hegemonic form of power at the village and neighbourhood scales. In this way, village and neighbourhood scales are transformed into micro-ideological spaces in which the consent-based forms of power of the modern nation-state are reproduced. This transformation is realised primarily through the positioning of muhtars, albeit without clearly defined administrative or legislative roles, as effective political-administrative actors at the local scale, particularly at the level of political discourse. This configuration serves to deepen the discursive disjuncture between the formal legal status of muhtars and their substantive political function, thereby constituting them as local vehicles of the hegemonic reproduction of state power.