From the Ottoman Experiment in Local Government to the First Constitutional Parliament of 1876-1877

It vvould be an exaggeration to speak of a rich tradition of localgovernment, reaching deep down into the past, in Turkish history. Theability of urban or rural communities to undertake autonomous action and toset up their own organs of government was a relatively recent phenomenonin the Ottoman Empire, as indeed in many other countries (with the verylimited exception of certain parts of medieval Europe). Nevertheless, someauthors have made much of, for example, the say that craft guilds had inurban administration, or the fact the city of Ankara was run by the Akhisuntil the 15th century — to the point of arguing that religious orders like theAkhis represented a certain tradition of local government. It is diffıcult toregard such claims as resting on careful study of the available documentation,which reveal no evidence of any institutionalization nor hence of anycontinuity in local government. It is not on craft guilds or religious ordersbut on economic and financial autonomy that local government should bebased, and it should be capable of sustaining itself by incorporating localresidents as citizens into that institutional framework. But such processeswere very late in setting in under Ottoman administration

From the Ottoman Experiment in Local Government to the First Constitutional Parliament of 1876-1877