@article{article_641227, title={From the Ottoman Experiment in Local Government to the First Constitutional Parliament of 1876-1877}, journal={The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations}, pages={17–24}, year={1982}, DOI={10.1501/Intrel_0000000159}, author={Ortaylı, İlber}, keywords={Ottoman Experiment, Local Government, First Constitutional Parliament}, abstract={<p>It vvould be an exaggeration to speak of a rich tradition of local <br />government, reaching deep down into the past, in Turkish history. The <br />ability of urban or rural communities to undertake autonomous action and to <br />set up their own organs of government was a relatively recent phenomenon <br />in the Ottoman Empire, as indeed in many other countries (with the very <br />limited exception of certain parts of medieval Europe). Nevertheless, some <br />authors have made much of, for example, the say that craft guilds had in <br />urban administration, or the fact the city of Ankara was run by the Akhis <br />until the 15th century — to the point of arguing that religious orders like the <br />Akhis represented a certain tradition of local government. It is diffıcult to <br />regard such claims as resting on careful study of the available documentation, <br />which reveal no evidence of any institutionalization nor hence of any <br />continuity in local government. It is not on craft guilds or religious orders <br />but on economic and financial autonomy that local government should be <br />based, and it should be capable of sustaining itself by incorporating local <br />residents as citizens into that institutional framework. But such processes <br />were very late in setting in under Ottoman administration <br /> </p>}, number={21}, publisher={Ankara Üniversitesi}