Abstract
In 2000s, Turkey has entered an intense process of change in political, social, economic, and administrative areas under the effect of internal and external dynamics. When the changes introduced by this process on administrative dynamics are taken into account, it is seen that it is aimed at switching from a bureaucratic culture, which exists for decades in public administration, to a citizen-focused culture. During this process, politics has aimed at enabling citizens who get service from bureaucracy to question and monitor bureaucracy with their awareness of right and demand of getting active, efficient, and quality service. Citizens’ questioning bureaucracy and monitoring it are achieved by raising the awareness of citizens about their rights and by the formation of mechanisms that are required for claiming rights.
With the effects of advancements in human rights and democracy, some mechanisms such as Right to Information Act, Presidency’s Communication Center, Board of Ethics for Civil Servants, Ombudsman Institution, and Open Door Service which are used to claim rights have been put into practise in Turkey in 2000s, having a role in the transformation of the unaccountable traditional bureaucracy, where confidentiality governs, to a transparent and accountable bureaucracy.
In this work, the concept of right, mechanisms of right-claiming, its functions and the effects of above-mentioned mechanisms on the transformation of bureaucracy are evaluated.