Depending on the socio-economic, technological and political changes in the historical process, the responsibility of the state has been renewed. As far as the era is concerned, it undertook basic public services such as state security and justice. Diversification of social segments due to population increase, different demands and expectations have increased especially the financial burden of the state. This situation rendered the status of the state controversial in terms of offering public services and introduced the phenomenon of a minimal state. The new system introduced a model that distributes central powers among local elements, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations in the offering of public services. The model provides that the state should adopt a regulating and supervising position instead of directly producing one. And the new position of the state required democratic and participatory understanding in the governing processes. This new position seen fit to the state has not delayed the goal of socio-economic development and social welfare. The process of globalization enabled the state to form a partnership with actors such as the civil society and the private sector in fulfilling the aims of development. The globalization process called for local administrative governments, in two ways. First; local governments were at play as the means of primary application of participation and democracy. Second; local governments were accepted as the center(s) concerning development thanks to their capabilities and potential. Turkey was introduced with the concept of planned development with the proclamation of the Republic. For Turkey, the Economic Congress of 1923, the establishment of the State Planning Organization and the first Development Plan of 1963 have constituted the main steps. In the development steps, local elements and local administrations came to the fore in different periods. In this respect, it is safe to say that development plans also regarded the local governments as actors in determining the socio-economic goals of our country. While rural development was emphasized in the first years of the republic, increasing urban population and urban problems necessitated these problems to be addressed in development plans. In the development plans, a city was mostly treated keeping in mind the authorities, duties and financial structure; and partial improvements were made on these issues. Political changes experienced by the world's societies revealed the democratic and participatory aspects of local governments. As a repercussion of this, the main aims for the evolution of local governments into a democratic and participatory model in our country are reflected in the development plans. City administrations started to be defined as democratic and participatory structures. Besides, development plans have been a vision and goal setting tool in terms of characteristics and types of urban services, which are the main areas of responsibility of local governments. In this framework, in city development plans, cityfocused aims have been defined in various fields such as transportation, infrastructure, shelter, socio-economics, etc. Since 1963, 10 development plans have been issued in Turkey. Finally, on July 23 2019, the 11th Development Plan was issued. Although development plans come to the forefront from a socio-economic point of view in general, they actually set goals and policies for all institutional structures. In Turkey, the development plans prepared has been focused on the changes and transformations in the local government area. The 11th Development Plan contains references to these previous plans. The most important point seems to be the strong emphasis on the re-reform of local governments. Also; people oriented cities, green cities, smart cities, quality service delivery, participation, transparency, accountability, optimum geographical area and etc. concepts take part in the plan. All this shows that change in local administrations will continue in the 11th plan period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]