Street-level governing : negotiating the state in urban Turkey / Elise Massicard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Massicard, Élise, author.

Series:

Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and cultures.

Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Local officials and employees--Turkey.

Local officials and employees.

Local government--Turkey.

Local government.

Central-local government relations--Turkey.

Central-local government relations.

Turkey--Politics and government.

Turkey.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (344 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Muhtars, the lowest level elected political position in Turkey, hold an ambiguously defined place within the administrative hierarchy. They are public officials, but local citizens do not always associate them with the central government. Street-Level Governing is the first book to investigate how muhtars carry out their role—not only what they are supposed to do, but how they actually operate—to provide an ethnographic study of the state as viewed from its margins. It starts from the premise that the seeming "margin" of state administration is not peripheral at all, but instructive as to how it functions. As Elise Massicard shows, muhtars exist at the intersection of everyday life and the exercise of power. Their position offers a personalized point of contact between citizens and state institutions, enabling close oversight of the citizenry, yet simultaneously projecting the sense of an accessible state to individuals. Challenging common theories of the state, Massicard outlines how the position of the muhtar throws into question an assumed dichotomy between domination and social resistance, and suggests that considerations of circumvention and accommodation are normal attributes of state-society functioning.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART 1. A HYBRID INSTITUTION ANCHORED IN LOCAL SOCIETY

1. An Incompletely Formed Institution

2. How the Muhtarlık Fuels the Production of Notables

PART 2. A FAMILIAR INSTITUTION IN THE TIME OF DATABASES

3. The Muhtars’ Changing Role

4. The Residents’ Champion

PART 3. CONTRASTING POLITICAL EFFECTS

5. Ambivalent Interface with the Official Order

6. Enacting Context- Dependent Roles

PART 4. LOSS OF AUTONOMY AT THE MICROLOCAL LEVEL

7. Working within and Modulating Institutional Constraints

8. The Muhtarlık’s Waning Autonomy

Conclusion

Appendix: The Muhtars Studied

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Mai 2022)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503631861

1503631869

OCLC:

1313643524