The making of neoliberal Turkey

'The Making of Neoliberal Turkey' edited by Cenk Özbay, Maral Erol, Ayşecan Terzioğlu and Z. Umut Turem (Ashgate, 241 pages, £95)

Alarm bells have been ringing for the Turkish economy in recent months. The plunging value of the lira, the dangerous levels of private and corporate debt, rising unemployment, a stubbornly high current account deficit, and a crisis-stricken tourist sector are all ominous signals. The situation contrasts starkly with just a few years ago, when breakneck growth rates marked the Turkish economy as a global shining star.

Much of the praise for the "Turkish model" stemmed from the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) apparent blending of economic development with "moderate Muslim democracy." The government was hailed for opening up the country to liberal market forces while also extending services to the poorest parts of society. A rising tide seemed to be lifting all boats. 

The reality was more complicated. As Ayşe Buğra and Osman Savaşkan showed in their book "The New Capitalism in Turkey," the AKP came to power promising to abide by "good governance" regulatory reforms after the crippling 2001 financial crisis. But it steadily rolled back many of those reforms and opened the path to the crony capitalist economic model of today's Turkey.

In fact, early neoliberal reforms back in the 1980s were also entirely dependent on state enforcement. Turkey's military coup of 1980 aimed to put an end to the near-civil war between and within left and right-wing groups in the 1970s, and ushered in a period of harsh economic liberalization. As Nilgün Önder described in "The Economic Transformation of Turkey," opening the country to global market forces paradoxically could only be achieved through a...