From 14 October 1979 to 11 July 1980, a very particular experience of direct democracy was experienced in Fatsa, a small Black Sea town in Turkey. An independent candidate, Fikri Sonmez, obtained a very comfortable majority surpassing political parties in local elections. From then on, neighborhood committees were created and considerable public work was realized collectively. The experience was ended by a military operation held in 11 July 1980. This paper tries to examine Fatsa experience with the help of social capital and leadership concepts, aiming to explore and understand the conditions, which favored voluntary public involvement in local political life in Fatsa