Introduction

Local governments and cities have increasingly become key players for strengthening democracy, supporting sustainable development, and improving the welfare of their inhabitants. Cities are in the forefront of solving current and future problems, shaping the future of the planet due to rising urban population and accelerating urbanization. 55% of the world’s population are based in cities according to 2020 data¹. Furthermore, more than 80% of the economic value created in the world is created in urban areas². Migration from rural areas to urban areas has increased since the beginning of the 20th century. Nowadays this population movement has reached a level that could be called the “urbanization of planet”³.

About 70% of greenhouse gasses are originated from cities and about 90% of the urban population breathes polluted air⁴. It is expected that approximately 5 billion people will be living in cities by 2050. An OECD study shows that about 65% of SDGs cannot be achieved without involvement of local governments⁵. Therefore, it could be said that the future of the planet will be shaped by cities. Cities influence people’s life and the planet’s future through environmental, social, and economic effects.

Central and local governments thus need to be strengthened and encouraged to behave in an agile manner for effectively dealing with problems on ecological, social, economic, and technological issues through a democratic perspective. Central and local governments are obliged to solve current and future problems.

Also, they must foresee potential risks and be ready for future needs. To achieve these goals, such governments need to gain the trust of citizens, civil society, the private sector, media, and academia. Enabling effective participation and cooperation of these stakeholders in an inclusive manner to critical processes (such as decision-making processes) is a requirement for a democratic, inclusive, and effective governance approach. However, representative democracy and bureaucratic public administration have fallen short of finding solutions to 21st century problems⁶. Trust and support of the society can now be gained by implementing participatory democracy and good governance principles. The implementation of a participatory and cooperative decisions making approach by local governments would make decisions more inclusive, fair, effective and citizen centric. To reach these desired goals, different perspectives, expertise, and resources must be mobilized.

The awareness regarding sustainable development, the protection of environment, has been gaining importance where cities play an important role. Everyday actions and decisions taken by local governments impact far beyond the local level, to the global one. The importance of local governments has increased due to rising awareness on sustainability and global mega trends. The local government’s responsibility has grown as well. The widening of local government services is related to their increasing importance and responsibility. A good example is the broad spectrum of issues that local governments were required to address throughout the Covid 19 pandemic. Yet other examples are the actions taken by local governments to find solutions for recycling, energy efficiency, and alternative transportation solutions. Thus, it can be said that the effects and responsibility of local governments on citizens increase daily.

Democracy and the development of the quality of life must be analyzed on an urban level since about 50% of the world population lives in cities and cities are responsible for most of the economic activity as well as ecological impacts. The United Nations and European Union classify cities according to population intensity⁷. According to the above classification, a region can be identified as a city if its population intensity is 1.500 person per km² and if the population of the city center is 50.000. This classification defines a metropolitan city as a region that includes close locations which are economically integrated to the city. There are 1934 metropolitan cities worldwide that have populations of more than 300,000 and 2,59 billion people live in these cities in total according 2020 statistics⁸.

As of 2021, approximately 78% of the population lives in metropolitan cities in Türkiye, a number higher than the global average⁹. That is to say, most of Türkiye’s population lives in metropolitan cities when compared to the world demographics.

Metropolitan cities thus need to be considered as important urban centers due to the economic value created, their population size, and consequential environmental degradation caused. Metropolitan local governments could be considered as a fundamental public body in urban areas. Each metropolitan local government needs to be considered as an important actor in implementing good governance principles, as well as democratic processes and development activities. The implementation of a more democratic, inclusive, fair, effective governance approach by metropolitan local governments would enable a sustainable planet and its cities as well as attaining wellbeing and equality goals.

Sometimes democracy and governance are considered as separate perspectives. However, democratic institutions are expected to implement good governance principles. In other words, democratic governance must go hand in hand with the implementation of good governance principles. Such an approach is crucial for strengthening public sector capacity for the development, deepening, and amplifying of democratic practices in society¹⁰.

Implementing democratic governance in line with good governance principles is a requirement for social and economic development in cities and the protection of the environment as well¹¹. The implementation of local good governance, citizen participation, and financial transparency in local governments improves the quality of life according to the several research findings¹². City governments that can identify important risks and opportunities, and effectively manage their decision-making processes and resources are able to find solutions for current and future problems.

Metropolitan cities are governed by democratically elected representatives. Metropolitan municipalities are responsible for improving the quality of the lives of citizens and enabling sustainable development. These two goals must be placed at the core of each policy and in each plan and each activity performed by the metropolitan body. The performance evaluation of the body will be conducted according to these two goals.

Discussions on metropolitan municipalities and democratic good governance principles have been held for quite some time¹³. These discussions focus on central and local government relations, the distribution of authority between institutions, coordination between institutions, institutional structures, and deployment of resources.

Each country’s metropolitan municipal government structure depends on its history, as well as geographical and social characteristics. However, some common characteristics can be defined for public institutions based on fundamental principles of democratic practices and good governance principles. This approach enables measurement, comparison, and supports the continuous development of the implementation of good governance principles in metropolitan municipalities.

• Public good: Civil servants and elected politicians must work towards the satisfaction of needs, demands, and expectations of citizens and the improvement of social, environmental, and economic conditions of cities in the short, medium, and long-term(s).
• Legitimacy based on accountability and representation: The legitimacy of a municipal body can be ensured if council members are democratically elected, elected politicians and civil servants are accountable to the stakeholders, and all activities are performed according to the rule of law.
• Utilization of public resources: Municipal revenues are collected through taxes, transportation costs, and rents from municipal assets.
• Civil servants: Municipal employees are public officials. These public officials are responsible for conducting their activities according to regulations. All activities are subject to audit.
• Conducting operations according to regulations: Metropolitan municipalities’ establishment, organizational structure, and operations are formed based on regulations.
• Operating based on clearly defined processes: Metropolitan municipalities operate based on clearly defined processes and serve for public good. These processes are listed as:
• Political/democratic decision-making processes: Decisions regarding the main goals, plans, and activities made by political actors. The municipal council is responsible for the achievement of these goals and activities.
• Organizational processes: Municipal officials are responsible for the implementation of decisions undertaken by the municipal council. Procedures and codes for practices guide the implementation of decisions, plans, and activities.
• Financial processes: Resources have been utilized for decisions, plans, and activities based on the budget. Implementation activities have been monitored and reported.

These characteristics allow stakeholders to monitor metropolitan municipalities according to the implementation of good governance principles and are based on data. Answers to the following questions can be found:

• How and where have the public resources been utilized by decision makers?
• What is the quality of organizational structure, operational processes, and organizational practices according to good governance principles?
• What is the level of trust in metropolitan municipalities by citizens?
• Where, when, and how much stakeholder participation has been encouraged?
• Are the activities of metropolitan municipalities conducted with a focus on improving the quality of life and sustainable development?
• How inclusive are the investments, services, and projects conducted by metropolitan municipalities?
• How much have the needs, demands, and expectations of disadvantaged groups been satisfied?
• What are the activities performed by metropolitan municipalities as to capacity development? How much has been spent for capacity development?
• What are the cooperation and coordination areas that are implemented with civil society, the private sector, and academia?

These sample questions are useful for analyzing the quality governance structures and practices of metropolitan municipalities rather than measuring their performance. Good governance is related to the level of trust and satisfaction between metropolitan municipalities and citizens. Good governance in the public sector ensures trust between governing bodies and governed citizens. Good governance in the public sector can be enabled by the adoption of good governance principles in structuring organizations and in implementation processes. Good governance principles are:

• Consistency
• Representation and Participation
• Accountability
• Fairness and Inclusiveness
• Transparency
• Effectiveness and Efficiency
• Responsibility and Responsiveness

Each principle solely and collectively, in interaction, encourages improved trust between citizens and metropolitan municipalities and satisfaction with the metropolitan municipality. Principles also enable the effective utilization of public resources for the common good and interest. Metropolitan municipalities can form fruitful cooperative structures with private sector, civil society, and academia based on improved trust.

Strengthening the good governance culture in metropolitan municipalities would help to create institutions where the capacity of the organization is continuously developed, innovation is supported, public resources are effectively utilized, effective and evidence-based decision-making is a norm.

These institutions would be able to design their services based on data and meaningful stakeholder engagement. In order to understand the importance of implementing good governance practices, the responsibilities of metropolitan municipalities regarding different policy areas should be shared.

The content of this list may have minor differences between countries, yet these responsibilities belong primarily to metropolitan municipalities in general. Strengthening governance practices would help to better identify risk and opportunities and to find solutions for existing and future challenges in an inclusive and effective manner through a sustainable development perspective.

The implementation of good governance principles becomes increasingly important in administering metropolitan cities. Measuring the quality of implementation of good governance practices in metropolitan municipalities would help to improve governance quality, improve quality of life, and ensure a sustainable future. Although some tools do exist for analyzing metropolitan cities (See: International Approaches), none of these tools have citizen centric and holistic perspectives and/or are based on the evaluation of governance processes. The evaluation criteria of these tools are based on purely external evaluations. We as Argüden Governance Academy have developed the Metropolitan Municipality Governance Scorecard (MMGS) Model to analyze the governance quality of metropolitan municipalities so as to help strengthen governance quality and improve the trust of citizens in metropolitan municipalities. This model could be considered as a global innovation for measuring metropolitan governance quality.

The first Municipality Governance Scorecard (MGS) was developed in 2018. This model was created for global use and the first implementation of the model was realized through an analysis of İstanbul District Municipalities based on 227 indicators. This project has been considered as a best practice by both UN¹⁴ and OECD¹⁵. Similar to the MGS, the MMGS has been developed to analyze the different processes of municipal governing in an evidence-based manner from a governance perspective through a citizen centric approach.

For both projects, data was collected mainly from publicly available digital media sources provided by municipalities themselves. Each municipality’s score highly correlated with quality, coverage, and depth of provided data. Municipalities are required to communicate any and all information regarding activities that use public resources, according to the citizen centric public governance approach and regulations. Data collection methodology has been determined based on the above approach.

However, in order to adapt the model to evaluate metropolitan municipalities’ governance practices, the original model’s perspective has been widened. MMGS has been thus expanded with new indicators based on the following approaches and perspectives:

• Citizen Centric Public Administration Approach
• Council of Europe Good Governance Principles and Indicators of European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE)
• UN Sustainable Development Goals
• OECD Wellbeing Indicators
• EFQM 2020 Model
• National Regulations and Policy Documents
• International Policy Frameworks, Roadmaps, and Benchmarks
• Local, Regional and Industry based Development Plans

The MMGS model is useful for monitoring metropolitan municipalities’ activities, processes based on governance perspective by citizens. Citizens will be able to understand:

• How representatives have exercised the authority granted to them by electoral processes,
• How and where resources have been utilized,
• The reasons for the conduct of certain activities,
• How they can engage with municipalities to communicate their needs, expectations, and demands.

The MMGS model also enables metropolitan municipalities to improve their governance practices and disseminate governance culture in their organizations. The improvement perspective focuses on structures, processes, and activities conducted by municipalities.

The MMGS model supports building trust between metropolitan municipalities and civil society, business, and academia. Trust would enable metropolitan municipalities to form partnerships with these stakeholders. MMGS helps improving coordination and cooperation between the central government and metropolitan municipalities with an evidence-based evaluation approach.

Finally, it could be said that the MMGS model would guide metropolitan municipalities in their journey for improving the quality of life and supporting sustainable development efforts in their regions.

The main aim of the MMGS model is to strengthen democracy and to support metropolitan municipalities in their activities and policies for improving the quality of life and sustainable development efforts on regional, local, and global levels.

MMGS needs to be considered as a tool for measuring and evaluating the governance quality of metropolitan municipalities where this tool will guide municipalities in their improvement efforts.

The goals for MMGS:

• Serving to the monitoring of metropolitan municipalities’ policies, plans, and activities by civil society organizations and citizens regarding how the authority and resources have been utilized,
• Identifying governance processes to be improved by metropolitan municipalities,
• Supporting metropolitan municipalities regarding the utilization of resource(s) in an inclusive, effective, and sustainable manner,
• Building a trust-based environment where cooperation between metropolitan municipalities and civil society organizations, business, and academia could be enabled,
• Improving citizen satisfaction with their municipality and ensuring responsiveness to the needs and demands of citizens,
• Supporting participation and engagement of citizens in the decision-making processes of metropolitan municipalities,
• Supporting the building of trust between municipality and stakeholders.

The ability to monitor public institutions, in our case--metropolitan municipalities, by citizens is a prerequisite for democracy and the implementation of a good governance approach. Monitoring activities of elected politicians and civil servants is an insurance policy for effective democratic governance. Nowadays representative democracy has some setbacks in dealing with fast changing problems and rising expectations with limited resources. The participation of citizens in decision-making processes improves the municipality’s capability of dealing with challenges. Such inclusiveness would also encourage public institutions to produce effective and efficient solutions. Monitoring could also help in building trust between parties.

The MMGS model considers metropolitan cities as governance areas and metropolitan municipalities as governance actors. It should be underlined that metropolitan city governance responsibility does not only belong to metropolitan municipalities. This responsibility has been distributed to different public institutions. Central government officials and representatives also possess some authority on metropolitan city governance as well. District municipalities and mukhtars, i.e., popularly elected heads of neighborhoods, have some lower-level responsibilities in governing the city. Therefore, it could be said that strengthening democracy and sustainable development efforts as well as improving the quality of life in metropolitan cities could be achieved by cooperation and coordination between public institutions. Furthermore, metropolitan municipality governance is directly or indirectly affected by business, civil society organizations and academia through research and socioeconomic activities, and advocacy for disadvantaged/vulnerable societal groups. As such, coordination, and cooperation horizontally amongst public institutions and offices at different levels, and vertically between metropolitan municipalities and civil society organizations, business and academia would improve governance quality in metropolitan cities.

Our main goal is to support the achievement of a sustainable future, improving wellbeing, and the effective utilization of resources through metropolitan municipalities. We believe that this goal will serve for a common interest of a better world. We hope this model will be evaluated as a useful one by metropolitan municipalities and stakeholders, not to mention its citizens.