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ABSTRACT
Turkey’s biosafety regulations allow genetically modified food to be imported from abroad while prohibiting cultivation in Turkey – a puzzling regime that discriminates against domestic production. This article demonstrates that the making of the regime was the result of competition between two advocacy coalitions trying to recruit influential members and increase their leverage on the decision-making process. In the advocacy coalition framework, underlying the preferences of actors there are complex belief systems which are formed in a context of bounded rationality and significant information costs. This article highlights the importance of mechanisms of differential access to information: information is more readily available to corporate groups which can act in concert by solving collective action problems. Large groups with many small members are at a disadvantage in doing so due to collective action dynamics, and consequently they may adopt the position of rational ignorance rather than active engagement with the policy process.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Peter M. Haas, Frederic C. Schaffer, Kevin Young and James K. Boyce for advising his doctoral dissertation, on which this article is based, and two anonymous referees for reviewing the article draft.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributors
Alper H. Yagci is an Assistant Professor of International Relations, at Ozyegin University, Turkey.
Notes
1 Interview with Hamit Esin (August 2012, Ankara).
2 Interviews with Rint Akyüz, President of TGDF (August 2012, Istanbul), Rukiye Ün from Cargill (August 2012, Istanbul).
3 See Türk Gıda ve İçecek Sanayi Envanteri 2010, Türkiye Gıda ve İçecek Dernekleri Federasyonu, 2011, Ankara.
4 Interview Zeki Ertugay (phone, July 2012).
5 US Ankara Embassy cable (ref: 05Ankara 862) to Washington DC, dated 5 February 2005, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2005/02/05ANKARA862.html. All Wikileaks links last accessed July 2014.
6 See Baykan (Citation2012: 191).
7 Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı, Sekizinci Beş Yıllık Kalkınma Planı Biyoteknoloji ve Biyogüvenlik Özel İhtisas Komisyonu Raporu, Ankara, 2000: 29.
8 2004 draft, titled Ulusal Biyogüvenlik Kanun Taslağı, obtained from TAGEM. Supportive information comes from interviews with Arzu Önal and Birgül Güner from the bureaucratic team preparing the draft (August 2011 and July 2012, Ankara).
9 The ‘Yaşam Patentlenemez’ declaration is available at http://bianet.org/english/print/41053, posted August 21, 2004. This section relies mostly on interviews with Fevzi Özlüer from Ekoloji Kolektifi (Ankara, August 2011), Uygar Özesmi from Greenpeace Mediterranean (İstanbul, August 2011), Ahmet Atalık from the Chamber of Agricultural Engineers (Istanbul, August 2011). Also see Baykan (Citation2012).
10 Interview with Fahri Harmanşah of Tasaco Seeds (August 2012, Ankara), who has held management roles, as well seed industry associations TÜRKTED, TSÜAB, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture.
11 Hülya Ünlü, Akşam, 21 October 2004.
12 US Ankara Embassy cable (ref: 03Ankara6214) to Washington DC, dated 3 October 2003, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2003/10/03ANKARA6214.html.
13 US Ankara Embassy cable (ref: 04Ankara5980) to Washington DC, dated 21 October 2004, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2004/10/04ANKARA5980.html.
14 Interview with Oana Çorat (phone, June 2014).
15 Interview with Barış Kocagöz, President of the National Cotton Council and The Izmir Commodity Exchange reported in ‘‘Made in Turkey’ Üstelik GDO’suz,’ Radikal, 15 December 2010.
16 ‘Aysu ‘GDO’ların Adı Katır Tohumudur’,’ Karasaban, 17 June 2009. http://www.karasaban.net/aysu-gdolarin-adi-katir-tohumudur/.
17 Interview with Şerif Ayhan Sümerli, ‘Orgüder Başkanı: GDO Buzdağının Görünen Kısmı,’ http://www.organikturkiye.com.tr/2014/03/orguder-baskani-gdo-buzdaginin-gorunen-kismi/.
18 This section relies on the minutes of the 74th and 75th General Assembly sessions of the 23rd Parliament (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Tutanak Dergisi volume 64).
19 See US Ankara Embassy cable (ref: 05Ankara 862) to Washington DC, dated 5 February 2005, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2005/02/05ANKARA862.html.