Citizen-Centered Environmental Policy making in Turkey: The Struggle of Unheard Voices

Abstract

Citizen-centered approaches in policy making and implementation have become widespread in the past decades. Various instruments have been developed to ensure citizen involvement in policy processes. There is a rich repertoire of policy instruments to ensure citizen involvement in the environmental policy making process. Yet again, there are several barriers to realizing citizen involvement in policy processes in different parts of the world. Turkey is not an exception, and there are few opportunities and venues for citizen-centered environmental policy making in Turkey. In that respect, efforts toward citizen involvement in the environmental policy process is a struggle of unheard voices to make themselves heard in the policy process. This chapter will start with a brief introduction to the use of citizen-centered environmental policy making. In this context, theoretical issues on citizen involvement will be discussed concerning relevant literature. In the next section, the barriers to citizen-centered environmental policy making in Turkey will be summarized, and finally, the citizens’ struggles and tactics in making their voices heard will be analyzed.