Being a Governor in Turkey: Impact of the New Law No. 6360

A governor in Turkey is the highest ranking and the most powerful official who was appointed by the central authority to the post of any provincial administration (İL) that was formed by the deconcentration principle. Political/administrative competences assigned to Governor in Province have been conflictual debate between centralization and decentralization principles. He is at the heart of the system and has played an important role in the historical evolution that led to the current institutions. Despite the governor is a very important actor of the whole territorial structure, the reform process in the Turkish public administration affects his role and place has changed. Since the day Turkey has challenged tutelage over sub-national authorities while integrating European Administrative Space, the roles and place of Governor had re-designed with new amendments as in the case of the law numbered 5302 and law numbered 6360, recently adopted. So the objective of this paper is to highlight organizational structure, roles and responsibilities of Governors in Turkey taking into consideration the reform process of the public administration system with particular focus on the Governorate System. For this purpose, the paper will focus first on the governorate system and the territorial structure in Turkey. Then it will have an historical approach and background. The second part of the paper will be reserved to the evolution of the governor’s role and place and also his contemporary situation, under the reform process that has a huge influence on the administrative structure.