The political economy of Turkey's integration into Europe

Uneven development and hegemony

Author:
Elif Uzgören
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The proposed book aims to explain the divergent coordinates of Turkey’s EU membership bid in the last two decades as an instance of class struggle by embarking on two historical materialist categories: uneven development and hegemony. In the 2000s, Turkey was referred as an emerging market, a model with moderate Islam, a market economy and a candidate for EU membership. In the 2010s, enlargement has been off the agenda, with the EU’s credibility to consolidate democracy on its periphery being questioned, while Turkey has become more authoritarian under its new presidential regime. The book questions whether there is any pro-membership project in Turkey and whether there are any alternatives in the last two decades. The analyses rely on interviews conducted in İstanbul and Ankara around three research trips at two different historical conjunctures. The book argues that while the pro-membership project was hegemonic, it was contested by two rival class strategies during the 2000s: neo-mercantilism and Ha–vet (No–Yes). In the 2010s, pro-membership is no longer hegemonic with its social forces encountering difficulties in providing ‘moral and intellectual leadership’ for subordinate social forces in society. Social forces supporting rival class strategies increase their critical tone given the economic disparities between Europe’s core and periphery and rising populist politics in Europe. Yet an overall alternative to the pro-membership project of the 2010s hasn’t emerged, and there has been a failure to develop a universally appealing project.

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