Neoliberal transformation of the Turkish city through the Urban Transformation Act

•The article focuses on The Urban Transformation Act for the Areas under Disaster Risk.•The mobilization model of agenda setting put forward by Cobb et al. is referred.•The political authority attempts to centralize urban politics.•An authoritarian and undemocratic way of policy making characterizes urban policies.

This article aims to focus on the urban public policy shaped by neoliberal policies and to analyze The Urban Transformation Act for the Areas under Disaster Risk in this context. With the help of policy analysis concepts and methods, the article tries to demonstrate that the political authority attempts to centralize urban politics, to eliminate mechanisms of participation in decision making and to impose an authoritarian and top-down decision-making style as the dominant mode of decision. The article concentrates on agenda-setting and argues that far from being a pluralistic process, it denies any opposition or criticism coming either from the opposition party or civil society. The source of initiative is the political authority which tries to legitimize urban transformation via an eventual earthquake risk. However, the implementation proves that urban transformation ended with an unjust rent transfer, displacement, social exclusion and thus gentrification. Despite this, the neoliberal development policies put into implementation during the last decades make clear the great importance that has been attached by the AKP government to the urban transformation process. AKP's main development strategy is based on creating attractive investment opportunities both for national and foreign capital. An authoritarian and undemocratic method of policy making accompanies these policies.