A New Organization in Turkish Public Administration: The Ministry of Development

A new ministry -with the objective of achieving economic development- has been recently implanted into Turkish public administration system. The Ministry of Development, established in 2011, builds over the competences previously accumulated by the State Planning Organization which was working under the orders of the prime minister, and was authorized to make national plan. However, the establishment of the Ministry of Development should not only be tackled as a process of transformation from a planning organization to a ministry. Its establishment is also closely related to the membership of the European Union and the regionalism policies which are required for this membership. In this respect, this study argues that the establishment of the Ministry of Development is not simply an addition to the list of ministries but it is directly related to the use of structural funds and developing a new understanding of planning in line with the EU membership process.