Metropolitan Governance in Türkiye: Institutional Alignment and City‐Regional Differentiation

ABSTRACT

Metropolitan reforms in centralized governance systems frequently privilege territorial standardization over spatial‐functional differentiation. This tension becomes particularly visible where uniform institutional frameworks are applied across structurally diverse metropolitan configurations. This article examines metropolitan governance reform in Türkiye through a city‐regional lens, conceptualizing city‐regionalization as a governance‐relevant process linking spatial restructuring to institutional alignment challenges. Employing a two‐stage analytical design, the study integrates morphological spatial clustering with structural functional indicators to classify metropolitan configurations across 30 metropolitan provinces. The findings point to substantial spatial‐functional differentiation beneath Türkiye's territorially standardized metropolitan system, and reveal that morphological clustering does not automatically translate into structural functional capacity, nor does metropolitan designation guarantee city‐regional consolidation. The study develops the first systematic classification of Türkiye's metropolitan areas according to their city‐regionalization potential. By empirically operationalizing differentiated metropolitan configurations, the paper attempts to reframe metropolitan reform as an institutional alignment challenge rather than a question of territorial expansion. In doing so, it contributes to public administration debates on coordination capacity, multilevel governance, and differentiated institutional design in centralized states. The analysis suggests that uniform metropolitan governance frameworks may obscure meaningful structural heterogeneity and that calibrated institutional responses are necessary to address differentiated coordination demands across metropolitan regions.