SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis examines the impact of improving EU-Turkey relations on Turkish political culture since the 1990s. While republican institutions and a multi-party political system were introduced in Turkey by the 1950s, political liberalism was the missing part of Turkey's substantive democratisation. The subject character of Ottoman political culture, compounded by the leading political role of the military and successive military coups, resulted in the consolidation of a republican political culture, which valued submissiveness toward state authority and did not favour citizen participation. The liberal deficit of Turkish politics became apparent with Turkey's decision to pursue membership of the European Union. Turkey's need to comply with the Copenhagen Criteria to achieve the start of EU accession negotiations meant that political liberalisation reforms were inevitable. This study embarks from an examination of the historical background to the political culture debate in Turkey. It then explores European and Turkish political cultures and draws a comparison between them. The core of this study consists of an exploration of the impact that Turkey's EU-motivated political reform had on civil society, state-society relations, the role of religion in politics and national identity. An assessment whether Turkish political culture has become more participant and citizen-centred is attempted in the concluding chapter. The theoretical framework of this thesis is informed by the work of Almond and Verba on civic culture. Historical institutionalist theories of European integration and path dependence theory are also applied to explain the role of the European Union in the liberalisation process of Turkish political culture. Putnam's work on two-level games helps explain the interplay of Turkish and European actors in the process of EU-Turkey negotiations, while his work on 16 social capital points at a feature, which can serve as the acid test for the emergence of a liberal, participant political culture in Turkey.