The “Smart” Transformation of Cities in Turkey

Smart city policies represent a process of comprehensive and multi-actor effort. Smart cities is undoubtedly a policy process that has reached maturity as Turkey has revealed a series of action plans and policy documents for many years. It can be accepted that Turkey's basic policy documents for the information society, published in 1999, starts with Turkey's National Information Infrastructure Master Plan (TUENA). The Information Society Strategy Action Plan (2015-2018), the Eleventh Development Plan (2019-2023), and the National Smart Cities Strategy Action Plan (2020-2023) are some of the recent documents. In this study, Turkey's roadmap of smart city that began with information society is analysed via policy documents. In the analysis, the concept of smart city, its components, vision, and goals were determined as the main topics. In this way, an overview of the policies followed between 1999 and 2023 will be made and the aspects that are intensely processed, incomplete or not mentioned will be tried to be revealed.

Smart Cities and Governance

Cities are futures' crucial elements, playing an important role in economics, social and environmental. As closer to individuals, cities face some challenges in terms of problems caused through the rapid urbanization process. Hence, governments and public agencies at all levels should use smart techniques including technology for sustainable development, better quality of life for citizens, and finally, an efficient use of scarce public resources. In this sense, Turkey plans to apply a smart city concept in Turkish cities as worldwide and published 2020-2023 National Smart Cities Strategy and Action Plan document with four strategic goals, nine targets, and 40 actions. This chapter aims to reveal the institutional, fiscal, and social challenges on smart governance, which is the most important dimension of smart city, for Turkey. In this respect, there are some challenges on smart governance in Turkey in terms of legislation, institutional, transparency and accountability, participation, e-democracy, and citizens.

The Linkage Between Blockchain and the Regulatory Function of Governments

The study mainly aims to understand the linkage between “blockchain” and “the regulatory function of governments”. The research questions are 1) How can be identified the blockchain as a concept and assessed the regulatory function of governments with the trust/compliance relationship? and 2) What extend the blockchain has affected the regulatory function of government, and how can be unveiled the relevance between the blockchain and the regulatory function of governments? In methodology, it is a theoretical and exploratory study. This study has constructed in three sections. In the first section, the conceptual aspects of blockchain have assessed. The second section is about the regulatory function of governments in the trust. The studies on “regulatory state” and “state-citizen relationship” have respectively scanned, and the virtues and drawbacks of blockchain have combined in terms of “trustless, privacy sensible organizational, public efficiency social impact.” Discussion and conclusion sections, the linkage between the blockchain and the regulatory function of the State is evaluated.

Legal Framework on the Implementation of the Human Resource Management Reforms in the Philippines After the Marcos Era Up to the Duterte Administration

This study is aimed at filling the gap and will discuss the overview of both the legal reform processes happening in the public sector of the Philippine government and of recent developments and challenges initiated by the Civil Service Commission of the Philippine government as its Central Personnel Agency. This chapter will cover the years commencing 1986 up to the present dispensation of the Duterte administration where the primary goal is to study and suggest the approaches to reforming the Civil Service system and its decision-making process. It also outlines the discourses on the reform of public service among educators and public officials in the Philippines. Then, it elaborates on the laws and institutional measures introduced for an effective public personnel administration system in the country. A documentary analysis on the successful practices of public personnel administration will be used to evolve on the possible steps/strategies to further enhance the delivery of personnel services of the government sector workforce in the Philippines.

The Whole-of-Nation Approach

Microstates face innumerable challenges in braving the 21st century. Limited resources, a small geography, and a small population are just some of the constraints faced. None is more so pressing that the case of Brunei Darussalam, where its heavy reliance on Oil and Gas may have afforded it economic prosperity and political stability since its independence in 1984, but the changes in market structure and global forces have resulted in it facing serious issues, such as its increasing unemployment rate. The Government of Brunei have taken steed in the advice of Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah to unify the body politic through the “Whole-of-Nation” approach and bring about the harmonious constellation of state actors and non-actors, from both the formal and informal sectors, to realizing the country's ambitious Wawasan 2035 and to adapt to the 4th Industrial Revolution. This work will unpack whether the Government has been successful in its efforts to do so. Policy recommendations will also be presented.

Reformation of Public Administration in Conflict-Affected States

This chapter investigates the reformation process of public administration in the Republic of Sudan after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005. Adopting decentralization as the key solution to conflict, reformation of public administration in Sudan found its impetus after the CPA. International organizations, namely the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the International Monetary Fund, have engaged with Sudan through a variety of structural and sectoral adjustment programs. Drawing heavily on the analysis of related policy documents, this chapter, ultimately, seeks to depict how public administration reforms are identified and structured in conflict-affected contexts, compared to safe and stable conditions. At this point, it can be concluded that Sudan needs to determine its constitutional political identity first for succesful transition to democracy. Sudan seems unlikely to complete reforming its public administration unless it could have resolved issues of democratic transition and poverty.

Rising Global Challenges in Energy Demand and the Politics of Climate Change in Government Operations

While most governments subscribe to boosting global energy supplies since it paves the way for improved economies, which translates to better living conditions and gainful employments which in turn boost government operations, the rising global demand for energy from all human endeavors have activated unparalleled consequences on the environment, resulting to harmful repercussions for government operations and processes all over the world. Hence, scholars argue that the rising demand for global energy by industrialized nations have further increased the vulnerability of governments' operations and processes, especially in countries where these energy sources abound. Consequently, governments, multinationals, and various interest groups are divided on how best to address the quandaries resulting from rising global demand for energy and its effect on the environment and government operations. Recommendations that would enhance government operations were proposed.

Public Private Partnership (PPP) as a Mechanism to Improve the Infrastructure Needs of Countries

The public-private partnership (PPP) model has been increasingly popular in recent decades as a mechanism to support infrastructure related investment activity. PPPs creates many advantages for countries such as releasing from financial burden of high cost infrastructure investments, bringing high quality of public service and increasing efficiency of operations through transfer of private sector expertise. However, these benefits are not guaranteed for every PPP project since successful implementations are subject to several factors. This chapter aims to review the different aspects of PPPs in detail and examine the factors which play crucial roles for successful PPP implementation.

Citizen Participation in Public Administration

The aim of the chapter is to evaluate the citizens involvement in contemporary public administration, especially in the Czech Republic. New concepts of governance and management of public sector organizations enable providing new or improved public goods and services that better meet consumer´s needs. These concepts also represent reformed or new approaches to governance with increased citizen participation. Public administration responds to dynamic changes in information and communication technologies and their maturity and uses them in the framework of e-government. Thanks to the implementation of e-government, citizens have become more knowledgeable, able to participate in decision-making processes, thus automatically becoming co-producers of public goods or services. This approach to public good and service delivery describes modern public sector management theories as co-creation. Although co-creation is an entirely new concept in some countries, various forms of public participation are becoming increasingly important worldwide and can be expected to continue in the future.

Strategic Disaster Management

In this study, by considering the relationship between disaster management and sustainable development in general, disaster management is handled with strategic management and planning approach and its roles in sustainable development are emphasized. Besides literature search, the study primarily focused on disaster management, then, through the example of Turkey, disaster management and development of disaster policy were evaluated on the basis of sustainability and strategic planning. In addition, it was emphasized that for Turkey and other countries alike, disaster management should not only be considered as an emergency event, but it should also be handled in the national strategic plans and targets with a multi-stakeholder, governance approach that includes all dimensions such as risk mitigation, intervention, improvement and reconstruction. For this purpose, it is planned to include suggestions on how common development and cooperation models should be on a national and international scale.