ABSTRACT
Coming forward as a regional actor, Turkey recently had the 16th largest market economy in the world and the 6th in Europe. However, along with European Union members like Romania, Lithuania, Slovakia, Ireland and Spain, Turkey is among the countries which have the lowest public expenditure. The common point of these countries in terms of composition of public expenses is the fact that expenses for education, social security and general public services are low (Akat & Gürsel, 2008). The data not only demonstrate that Turkey's claim to be a social state, acknowledged as a principle, has not been realized but also remind us that Turkey has deep social and economic inequalities.
