NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AS A DECISIVE ACTOR FOR DIRECTING POLICY IN TURKEY AND THE WESTERN BALKANS

Abstract

At the present time, Turkey and the Western Balkan countries' policies at the economic and political arena have been re-shaped by internal and external dynamics. Which does not change is the policy-making process. In each country, the process takes place in the form of a cycle: policy-making, implementation and evaluation. Although different actors go into action at every stage of the process, there are some actors which mainly influence the stages of decision-making and agenda setting. The actor which would be examined within the framework of the study is the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The process of neo-liberal policies accepted these organizations as indispensable actors in the administration of the country, because the logic of minimal government attached importance to NGOs at the decision of policy-making process, believing that the tasks undertaken by the state must be realized by the market and the services can be provided effective and efficient in this context. NGO’s have also supported the state and public agencies to manage the country and have been decisive especially in directing economic and political relations in terms of neo-liberal policies or more generally the process of globalization. Especially in the 1990s, the reconciliation between state-market-society in general, and public sector-private sector-NGOs in particular were on the agenda by means of the idea according to which the problems of the government and public administration could be solved with the partnership of the state and the private sector. This partnership is "governance model" which expresses the new style of management and democracy mentality of the globalization process which implies that states are not a dominant power in the management individually. The perception according to which it would be possible to exert political power for development and for social resource management only through this model is being implemented. . It is claimed that policies are also produced in this context. With reference to this model, the idea of that NGOs must take on a greater role is highlighted by the World Bank and European Union in order to provide efficiency in the public sector, support competition and markets, create a favourable climate for private sector. NGOs play an important role in disseminating the dominant power mode into the society. NGOs are effective at implementation, internalization and quicker adoption of existing and re-created policies by the society. Demands which are voiced by NGOs at the policy-making process are taken into account and discussed. These demands of NGOs sometimes can be primary elements at the policy-making process. And they can be successful to direct policy by using media which is another actor. Within the scope of study, we first of all tried to explicit NGOs’ position in the process of establishing a policy. Later on, in respect to that, the situation in Turkey and Western Balkan countries and their position within that process were discussed.