Europeanization in Turkey-Stretching a Concept to its Limits? (original) (raw)
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Research on Europeanization and domestic change has moved south-eastwards and was provided with another real-world experiment when it has meet with Turkey. This paper explores to what extent Europeanization approaches travel to Turkey, which does have a membership perspective that looks, however, ever less credible. The first part outlines the main findings of research on ‘External Europeanization’ focusing on factors that have limited or at least qualified the domestic impact of the EU in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) and Western Balkan (WB) accession countries. The paper, then, discusses to what extent Europeanization approaches need further qualification when applied to Turkey, which squares on democracy with the Western Balkans (with the exception of Croatia), but whose statehood is less limited. We argue that existing Europeanization approaches, largely, account for the overall moderate degree of Europeanization in Turkey. Yet, selective and differential domestic changes are mostly related to the extent to which EU conditionality helps domestic actors gain or hold political power and push their own political agenda. The paper concludes by summarizing the major implications Turkey’s accession to the EU has for Europeanization approaches and discussing why Turkey is not a case sui generis.
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BEYOND SENDER-RECEIVER MODELS: TURKEY’S EUROPEANIZATION WITHIN WORLD SOCIETY
When a scholarly article mentions Turkey‟s Europeanization, one can quickly notice an overemphasis on the European Union‟s conditionality on candidate countries as a determinant factor, either in terms of actual pressures –„carrot and stick‟ mechanisms- or in terms of providing new norms. These studies wrongly conceive of Europeanization as a „sender-receiver‟ process whereby Turkey is reduced to a passive receiver of the „EU messages‟. I find at least three interrelated limitations in this type of approach. First of all, these models misleadingly ignore the processes through which the exogenous messages are perceived, translated, adopted or rejected by domestic actors. Second, it is generally forgotten that the exogenous messages that are propagated by the EU are not purely European in character. They are rather universalistic, which implies their -at least, theoretical- applicability throughout the globe. Finally, there is an unfortunate tendency to overlook the global cultural processes underlying the interaction between the EU and the candidate country, Turkey. By benefiting from the World Society theory (Stanford School on Sociological Institutionalism, see Buhari-Gulmez 2010) led by John W. Meyer, I will study Turkey‟s Europeanization from a macro-sociological perspective, which focuses on the world cultural environment that informs and legitimates the models carried by the EU as well as Turkish actors‟ responses towards the EU pressures. To this aim, I will study the EU-led reforms inthree major domains: the abolition of domestic restrictions against foreigners‟ rights (free movement), the abrogation of the Article 301 of Turkish Penal code that penalizes insult to Turkish state and nation (democracy, human rights, good governance), and the opening of national borders to Greek Cypriot vessels and aeroplanes (good neighbourly relations). I largely derive my empirical findings from the survey I conducted between January and April 2010 with (at total 261) Turkish civil servants, NGO representatives (academics), foreign trade experts and lawyers specialized on the EU/external affairs in Turkey. I will also present findings from interviews with Turkish Parliamentarians who are members of the Parliamentary committees dealing with Turkey‟s external relations and its harmonization with the EU. The analysis will demonstrate the key role that the global culture plays in Turkish actors' perception of the EU and the models it propagates. In particular, the selected case studies show that domestic actors tend to justify their stance vis-à-vis the EU conditionality in congruence with their perception of world culture. In addition, strong pressures from the EU lead to negative reactions (at least, in the short-run) rather than compliance in the domestic arena. Overall, the paper aims to go beyond mere sender-receiver models of Turkey‟s Europeanization by highlighting the missing link between Europeanization and globalization. To conclude, the paper suggests rethinking domestic motivations for Europeanization in terms of including the world cultural factor as well as rethinking the EU agency as an organizational carrier of world society‟s models. Key words: World Society, World culture, Europeanization, Turkey