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ABSTRACT
This article argues that EU-induced learning processes in Turkish domestic politics deserve greater attention within the Turkey-related Europeanization literature, which, in view of Turkey’s increasing distance from the European Union, tends to attribute a continued partial alignment with EU policies to either domestic, or to non-EU-related external factors. Two arguments are put forward. First, in domestically driven reform processes, the EU may still be able to influence policy choices due to domestic actors’ bounded rationality and conflicting goals. Second, while persuasion and learning at the top political level is rather unlikely, given the currently tense relations, there are much more favorable context conditions for EU-induced learning in the interaction of the Turkish bureaucracy with the EU.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Note on Contributor
Alexander Bürgin is an Associate Professor and Head of the EU Research Center at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Izmir University of Economics. He was Jean Monnet Chair between 2015 and 2018. He has published on EU topics and EU-Turkey relations in journals such as: Public Administration, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, Turkish Studies, South European Society and Politics, Journal of European Integration, European Integration Online Papers, German Politics, and Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies.
Notes
1. Aydın-Düzgit and Kaliber, “Encounters with Europe,” 1; Aydın-Düzgit and Noutcheva, “Lost in Europeanization,” 68; Kubicek, “Political Conditionality,” 910; and Yilmaz, “Domestic Drivers,” 303.
2. Avci, “The Justice and Development Party and the EU,” 410; Öniş and Yilmaz, “Between Europeanization and Euro-Asianism,” 7; Yilmaz and Soyaltin, “Zooming into the Domestic,” 11; and Yilmaz, “Domestic Drivers,” 303.
3. Kaliber, “Reassessing Europeanization in the Case of Turkey,” 58.
4. Kirişci, “Turkey’s New Draft Law on Asylum,” 64, and Tolay, “Turkey’s Critical Europeanization,” 43.
5. Zito and Schout, “Learning theory reconsidered,” 1103.
6. Ibid., 1104.
7. Kohler-Koch and Rittberger, “Governance turn in EU studies,” 40.
8. Zeitlein, “Introduction,” 4.
9. Lavenex, “The Power of Functionalist Extension,” 890 and 899; Falkner and Müller, EU Policies in a Global Perspective; and Börzel and Risse, “From Europeanisation to Diffusion.”
10. Cengiz and Hoffmann, “Rethinking Conditionality,” and Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, The Europeanization.
11. Andonova, “Europeanization of Environmental Policy”; Braun, Europeanization of Environmental Policy; and Dabrowski, “Shallow or Deep Europeanization.”
12. Bolukbasi and Ertugal, “Europeanisation of Employment Policy.”
13. Bürgin, “Why the EU still matters.”
14. Yilmaz and Soyaltin, “Zooming into the Domestic”; Yilmaz, “Domestic Drivers.”
15. Tocci, “Europeanization in Turkey,” 74.
16. March and Olsen, “The Logic of Appropriateness.”
17. Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, The Europeanization, 9.
18. Ibid., 8.
19. Sedelmeier, “Europeanisation in New Member,” 11.
20. Checkel, “International Institutions,” 802.
21. Dolowitz and Marsh, “Learning from Abroad,” 12.
22. Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, The Europeanization, 10.
23. Tocci, “Europeanization in Turkey,” 81.
24. Yilmaz and Soyaltin, “Zooming into the Domestic”; Yilmaz, “Domestic Drivers.”
25. Kemp and Weehuizen, “Policy Learning,” 8.
26. Bürgin, “Strategic learning,” 464.
27. Zuckerman, “Returning to the social logic,” 3.
28. Thompson, “Deliberative Democratic Theory.”
29. Béland, “The Politics of Social Learning,” 562.
30. Dolowitz and Medearis, “Cross-national Policy Transfer,” 686.
31. Kingdon, “Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies.”
32. Hall, “Policy Paradigms, Social Learning,” 275.
33. Dabrowski, “Shallow or Deep Europeanization,” 730.
34. Braun, Europeanization of Environmental Policy, chapter two.
35. Adaman and Arsel, “Environmental Policy in Turkey,” 320.
36. Alkan-Olsson and Alkan-Olsson, “Turkey’s signature,” 20.
37. Şahin, “Warming a Frozen Policy,” 123.
38. Ibid., 120.
39. Bürgin, “Why the EU matters,” 115.
40. Heclo, “Modern Social Politics,” 303.
41. Checkel, “International Institutions,” 813; Sedelmeier, “Europeanisation in New Member,” 13.
42. March and Olson, “The Logic of Appropriateness,” 2.
43. Börzel et al., “Same or Different?”, 271.
44. Pierini and Ülgen, “A moment of opportunity,” 13.
45. Dolowitz and Medearis, “Cross-national Policy Transfer,” 689.
46. Jaenicke, “Conditions for Environmental Policy Success,” 54.
47. Collins and Ison, “Social Learning,” 358.
48. Begüm, “Turkish Political Culture,” 60.
49. Sozen and Shaw, “Turkey and the European Union,” 111.
50. European Commission, “Turkey Report,” 87.
51. Kubicek, “Grassroot Democratization,” 368; Paker et al., “Environmental Organisations in Turkey,” 762; Rumeli and Boşnak, “Europeanization of Civil Society Actors”; and Şirin and Ege, “Turkey’s renewable energy policy,” 4926.
52. Bolukbasi and Ertugal, “Europeanisation of Employment Policy,” 249.
53. Börzel and Risse, “From Europeanisation to Diffusion,” 12.
54. Dolowitz and Medearis, “Cross-national Policy Transfer,” 689.
55. Bachtler et al., “From Conditionality to Europeanization,” 747, and Milio, “Can Administrative Capacity Explain Differences?”, 439.
56. Aydın-Düzgit and Noucheva, “Lost in Europeanization,” 68–9.
57. European Commission, “Positive EU-Turkey agenda.”
58. European Commission, “Turkey Report,” 37.
59. Checkel, “International Institutions,” 813.
60. Bailey and de Propris, “EU Pre-Accession Aid”; Grabbe, “How does Europeanization,” 1014; Papadimitrou and Phinemore, “Exporting Europeanization”; and Tulmets, “Institutional Twinning.”
61. Papadimitrou and Phinemore, “Exporting Europeanization,” 19.
62. Tulmets, “Institutional Twinning,” 670–71.
63. Bürgin, “Strategic Learning”; Bürgin, “Why the EU still matters.”
64. Ibid., 469.
65. Bürgin, “Why the EU still matters”, 113.
66. Young and Küçükkeleş, “New Directions,” 11.
67. European Commission, “Positive EU-Turkey agenda.”
68. European Commission, “High Level Energy Dialogue.”
69. Young and Küçükkeleş, “New Directions,” 11.