Changing modes of market integration, domestic developmental capacities and state-business alliances: insights from Turkey’s automotive industry

Abstract

This article investigates how different modes of transnational integration shape developmental state capacities in peripheral economies. The Turkish automotive industry serves as an ideal case to investigate this question. Turkey is a country that was exposed to different integration strategies, and we can trace the effects of these changing strategies on the evolution of developmental state capacities in a strategic sector. We make two arguments: first, we argue that the character of the domestic state-business alliance is an important factor that filters the effect of different modes of integration on developmental state capacities. Second, we argue that in cases with limited state autonomy the shallow mode of integration helps to increase the political and economic power of pre-existing rent-seeking alliances and with it, to consolidate the institutional status quo. Should the state be endowed with larger autonomy from vested interests, it helps to preserve the institutional status quo of at least some developmental capacities. By contrast, the deep mode can alter the domestic balance of forces and help to induce institutional changes leading to increased developmental capacities. Our dynamic analysis reveals important insights into the developmental advantages and disadvantages of different modes of integration.

Keywords:

• Development
• state-business relations
• market integration
• Turkey
• European Union
• automotive industry

Acknowledgments

We thank László Bruszt and three anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The usual disclaimer applies. Research assistance by Serkan Burken is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration (project “Maximizing the integration capacity of the European Union. Lessons and prospects for enlargement and beyond [MAXCAP]”) under grant agreement no 320115.

This research was supported in part by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration (project “Maximizing the integration capacity of the European Union. Lessons and prospects for enlargement and beyond [MAXCAP]”) under grant agreement no 320115.

Notes on contributors

Julia Langbein

Julia Langbein is senior researcher at the Center for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), Berlin. Her research focus lies in the field of comparative political economy (with a focus on Eastern Europe), European integration and institutional development. She is the author of Transnationalization and Regulatory Change in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood (Routledge, 2015); and co-author of Varieties of Dis-embedded Liberalism. EU Integration Strategies in the Eastern Peripheries of Europe, Journal of European Public Policy, 2017 (with László Bruszt); and Core-periphery disparities in Europe. Is there a link between political and economic divergence?, West European Politics, 2019 (with Tanja Börzel). Langbein’s work has also appeared in Governance, the Journal of Common Market Studies, Europe-Asia Studies and Eurasian Geography and Economics.

Olga Markiewicz

Olga Markiewicz is a freelance researcher who works with two Poland-based think thanks: the ICRA Foundation and the Institute of Public Affairs. She holds a PhD from the European University Institute. Her research interests revolve around the political economy of Central Eastern Europe and the impact of Europeanisation.