Title: The formal independence of regulatory authorities in Turkey

Authors: İhsan Kulali; Yavuz Göktaylar

Addresses: Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu, Yeşilırmak Sok. No. 16 06430 Demirtepe, Ankara, Turkey ' Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu, Yeşilırmak Sok. No. 16 06430 Demirtepe, Ankara, Turkey

Abstract: Turkey has experienced important institutional transformation during the last decades. A substantial part of this transformation is the establishment of independent regulatory authorities. Their independence from political power has attracted debate among the public from time to time. In 2011, massive legal amendments changed the Turkish public administration structure including IRAs. The aim of this paper is to assess effects of these legal amendments on IRAs' independence. To consider effects of those legal amendments on formal independence, a formal independence index is calculated before and after legal amendments for seven IRAs. The results show that formal independence index scores calculated after legal amendments in 2011 are lower than formal independence index scores calculated before those amendments.

Keywords: formal independence; independent regulatory authorities; regulation; regulatory state; Turkey; institutional transformation; public administration structure; legal amendments.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMNE.2013.054481

International Journal of Management and Network Economics, 2013 Vol.3 No.1, pp.22 - 38

Published online: 02 Jul 2014 *