Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The Pandora’s box: democratization and rule of law in Turkey

The Pandora’s box: democratization and rule of law in Turkey A prominent question in the literature on democracy is concerned with the role of external factors in stimulating the process of democratization and uploading rule of law. This paper tackles the following questions: How does the political conditionality of an international organization—the EU in this case—stimulate democracy in third countries? Equally important, does conditionality always have a positive impact and could it be possible to witness the EU undermining democracy in an unexpected manner? This paper addresses these questions through an analysis of the Turkish democracy in the light of its accession to the EU and through an application of the EU membership conditionality by looking at rule of law in Turkey. The general contention in the political conditionality literature is that the EU enables an acceding country to adopt its democratic principles, and facilitates transition to democracy, while strengthening rule of law. However, the Turkish transformation seems to challenge this contention. This paper proposes that the EU’s political conditionality in bringing about political transformation in Turkey as a membership precondition unexpectedly illuminated the underlying anti-democratic tendencies and tensions in Turkish politics. The democratization process in Turkey since 1999, partly stimulated by the EU, has opened up a Pandora’s box releasing the conflict between the secularists and religious conservatives in Turkey that has long been suppressed. This paper analyzes these cleavages through the prism of EU political conditionality with regards to rule of law. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asia Europe Journal Springer Journals

The Pandora’s box: democratization and rule of law in Turkey

Müftüler-Baç, Meltem
Asia Europe Journal , Volume 14 (1) – Sep 24, 2015
Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/the-pandora-s-box-democratization-and-rule-of-law-in-turkey-nV2pSdzGtX
Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Subject
Social Sciences; Social Sciences, general; International Economics
ISSN
1610-2932
eISSN
1612-1031
DOI
10.1007/s10308-015-0435-9
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A prominent question in the literature on democracy is concerned with the role of external factors in stimulating the process of democratization and uploading rule of law. This paper tackles the following questions: How does the political conditionality of an international organization—the EU in this case—stimulate democracy in third countries? Equally important, does conditionality always have a positive impact and could it be possible to witness the EU undermining democracy in an unexpected manner? This paper addresses these questions through an analysis of the Turkish democracy in the light of its accession to the EU and through an application of the EU membership conditionality by looking at rule of law in Turkey. The general contention in the political conditionality literature is that the EU enables an acceding country to adopt its democratic principles, and facilitates transition to democracy, while strengthening rule of law. However, the Turkish transformation seems to challenge this contention. This paper proposes that the EU’s political conditionality in bringing about political transformation in Turkey as a membership precondition unexpectedly illuminated the underlying anti-democratic tendencies and tensions in Turkish politics. The democratization process in Turkey since 1999, partly stimulated by the EU, has opened up a Pandora’s box releasing the conflict between the secularists and religious conservatives in Turkey that has long been suppressed. This paper analyzes these cleavages through the prism of EU political conditionality with regards to rule of law.

Journal

Asia Europe Journal – Springer Journals

Published: Sep 24, 2015

References

  • Violence, resistance and Gezi park
    Arat, Y
  • From Europeanization to diffusion: introduction
    Börzel, TA; Risse, T
  • A New electoral victory for the “Pro-Islamists” or the “New centre-right”? the justice and development party phenomenon in the july 2007 elections in turkey
    Çarkoğlu, A
  • Religion and politics in Turkey
  • The headscarf in Turkey in public and state spheres
    Cindoğlu, D; Zencirci, G
  • Democracy in developing countries: perspectives, failure and renewal
    Diamond, L; Juan, L; Martin Lipset, S
  • The adultery and the headscarf debates in Turkey: fusing “EU-niversal” and “alternative” modernities?
    Fisher-Onar, N; Müftüler-Baç, M
  • Secularism and Islamism in Turkey: the making of elites and counter-elites
    Göle, N
  • The changing role of the military in Turkish politics; democratization through coup plots
    Gursoy, Y
  • Islamism, democracy and liberalism in Turkey: the case of the AKP
    Hale, W; Özbudun, E
  • Turkish democracy today: elections, protest and stability in an Islamic society
    Kalaycıoğlu, E; Çarkoğlu, A
  • Türkiye’de Politik Değişim ve Modernleşme
    Kalaycıoğlu, E; Sarıbay, AY
  • Turkey’s transformation and democratic consolidation
    Keyman, F
  • Political conditionality and EU’s cultivation of democracy in Turkey
    Kubicek, P
  • Transitions to democracy
    Linz, J
  • Centre-periphery relations: a Key to Turkish politics
    Mardin, Ş
  • The failure of democracy in Turkey: a comparative analysis
    McLaren, L; Cop, B
  • Turkey’s political reforms: the impact of the european union
    Müftüler-Baç, M
  • The Era of dominant party politics
    Müftüler-Baç, M; Keyman, F
  • Lost in Europeanization: the western Balkans and Turkey
    Noutcehva, G; Aydin-Duzgit, S
  • Transitions from authoritarian rule: comparative perspectives
  • Conservative globalists versus defensive nationalists; political parties and paradoxes of Europeanization in Turkey
    Öniş, Z
  • Democratization reforms in Turkey
    Özbudun, E
  • AKP at the crossroads: Erdogan’s majoritarian drift
    Özbudun, E
  • Yargιda Algι ve Zihniyet Kalιplarι [perceptions and predispositions in the judiciary]
    Sancar, M
  • EU democracy promotion in the european neighbourhood - political conditionality, economic development and transnational exchange
    Schimmelfennig, F; Scholtz, H
  • In pursuit of contemporary civilization: judicial empowerment in Turkey
    Shambayati, H; Kirdis, E
  • The End of the Turkish model
    Taşpınar, Ö
  • Judicial activism in perilous times: the Turkish case
    Tezcur, G
  • Europeanization in Turkey: trigger or anchor for reform
    Tocci, N
  • Islam and political development in Turkey
    Toprak, B
  • The future of freedom: illiberal democracy at home and abroad
    Zakaria, F
  • Democratic consolidation in eastern Europe: international and transnational factors
    Zielonka, J; Pravda, A