Electing rectors

The slogan "no taxation without representation" comes from the American Revolution. It represents the displeasure of the original 13 Colonies against the British Empire, and their basic argument that since they were not directly represented in the British Parliament, they should not be paying taxes either. The students of history and democracy know this well, and I will not elaborate on it further. Briefly, those who are taxed have the right to represent themselves (either directly via referendums or indirectly by elected members) and to approve laws that affect their daily lives.

I believe the reverse is also true: No representation without taxation. To elaborate on this argument, I would say: If members of a society take no responsibility or have requirement to provide their organization's fundamental needs, they cannot demand to represent the organization either. This can also be formulated as "no representation without provision."I am making this argument in regards to Turkish public universities where members of the university elect the rector of the university.

The concept of "independence" in Turkish public universities is understood as the election of the university rector with votes from the university's professors. That sounds very democratic, however, this concept is seriously flawed because neither the rector nor the voting professors are required to raise the funds the university needs to function.

All expenses incurred by the university, including the salaries of its professors are paid using public funds. However, the people have nothing to say about who gets to be the rector of the universities they are fully paying for. The people should be involved. But how? Either directly, by having everyone vote, which sounds impractical and expensive, or indirectly by having the representatives of the people select the rector.

Since the people elect Parliament, which forms the government, and the people elect the president of Turkey, they are the ones who should be selecting the rectors. That would be the correct application of the democratic rule: representation with taxation. To give an example, the governor of the California forms a committee (the Board of Regents) who select the president of every public university or the college in the state of California. This practice is common in fact in almost all U.S. public universities.

Having the university professors elect their rector is applauded by the leftist liberals as good democratic practice. However, the experience of the last 50 years in Turkey has shown that this tradition brings polarization and an unnecessary burden into university governance. Professors form political or social groups, each group with its own rector candidate, with political or (mostly improper) economic objectives.

When their rector "wins" they get to use (more likely abuse) the system. The time and resources of the university are wasted due to unnecessary infighting, while the tax-payer (the people) watch from a distance. A recent rector selection event at Boğaziçi University has shown that many professors still do not grasp the fact they are being paid to be professors, teachers and researchers by the public for the good of the public.