ALTERNATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY METHODS IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION WITHIN THE SCOPE OF INFORMATION AND PETITION RIGHT: CIMER MECHANISM AS AN INNOVATIVE E-GOVERNMENT APPLICATION

Abstract

The paradigmatic changes in the understanding of public administration, which were intensely felt in the last quarter of the twentieth century, bring a new dimension to the relationship between the individual-state-society on the one hand, and on the other hand, they have required an organizational structure and communication networks that are citizen-oriented, transparent, accountable, capable of providing fast and qualified services in accordance with the requirements of the new century. Contrary to the traditional public administration approach, this process, which offers very important opportunities for citizens, has the potential to transform the one-way relationship and communication network between the state and the citizen into mutual interaction. However, with the introduction of public services by a more and more technological infrastructure and hybrid public institutions, it is seen that the actors that citizens can ask to account are sometimes ambiguous. However, the responsibility of the administrative apparatus, which implements the determined policies, has been questioned within the framework of various mechanisms from past to present. Especially e-government applications, which are one of the outputs of the new public administration approach, stand out as a platform that prioritizes citizen participation to increase the accountability of the state and produces simple and fast results. Ultimately, policy actors who strive to match the expectations and preferences of citizens with policy outputs desire to bring the citizens' right to apply to a more demandable level in order to resolve the dissatisfaction caused by the increasing governance dilemmas. Even though the application mechanisms created outside of judicial control from past to present have changed in terms of method and content over time, the right of citizens to apply to the state has been updated and preserved. Nowadays, the right to apply, especially realized within the scope of the right to obtain information and petition, sees citizens' participation in management and supervision of the administration as a requirement of democracy. Therefore, in this study, CIMER application, which aims to strengthen the communication between the individual, the society and the state, is discussed within the scope of the right to obtain information and petition. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the citizens' desire to use their application rights effectively and increasingly through CIMER, but the system should be revised again in line with new developments and needs.