This thesis examines the socio-economic transformation processes in Poland and Romania and aims to embed them in broader structural and historical context of changes. The main argument is that transformation processes in the states of Central and Eastern Europe are constituted by the global processes of change within a social totality. The study has three main objectives. First, it aims to provide a theoretical framework challenging the mainstream approaches methodologically/ontologically to point out to their limits and account for the dialectical relationship between the global and the internal. Second, to develop an account of the international context surrounding the transformation processes to highlight the nature of the global and hence to emphasise the unity of transformation and integration processes. As such, it critically interprets the social purpose of the international institutions and the European Union involvement in the policy-making of the states in the region through the changing techniques of monitoring, reporting and the process of negotiations. Third, to provide an analysis of the transformation processes in Poland and Romania as processes of the internationalisation of the state which would effectively help in examining the constitutive role of the global in a dialectical relationship with the national level dynamics and changes. Integration with the global economy as well as Euro-Atlantic institutions was an integral element of the neo-liberal restructuring in Poland and Romania. Socio-economic transformation in the region with added dimensions of conditionality had important social consequences, thereby resulting in new forms of state-society relations.

The primary aim of this study is to explore the connection between rural - urban migration and unemployment in Turkey and examine whether this internal migration has an effect on increasing the unemployment rates. By using Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) panel data techniques and fully identifying these very concepts: migration from rural areas to urban areas, unemployment and internal migrations effects on the unemployment, an attention will be taken to the (negative) impact of internal migration on unemployment in Turkey.

This study aims to analyze the transformation of Turkey&rsquo / s relations with Iran in the 1990s and 2000s from the perspective of &ldquo / trading state&rdquo / in a historical framework. In this context, the political and economic relations between Turkey and Iran are discussed by taking into consideration the internal transformation of Turkish economy. This thesis argued that the course of Turkey&rsquo / s relations with Iran in the 1990s is mainly shaped by the military-political considerations. Not only political but also economic relations between Turkey and Iran were negatively affected by tensions and rivalry between the parties during the 1990s. Despite the counter-efforts of some of the business circles and the political parties, neither the economic nor the political relations did improve. Unlike the 1990s, Turkey&rsquo / s relations with Iran in the 2000s are largely shaped by economic and commercial considerations. Increasing dialogue and developing cooperation at the political level are positively reflected in the economic relations. As a result of the eagerness of Turkish businessmen towards the development of economic relations with Iran and the intensive support of the political elites, economic relations substantially improved in the 2000s. However, rising foreign trade relations between the parties created an asymmetric dependence to the detriment of Turkey, rather than mutual interdependence as Iran benefits more from this relationship due to its oil and natural gas exports. The increasing relationship between Turkey and Iran supports the argument that Turkey is emerging as a &ldquo / trading state&rdquo / in the 2000s.

In this study, the current situation of e-government system in Turkey was analyzed, the positive and negative aspects were stated through PEST (Political, Economical, Sociocultural, Technological Factors) Analysis, Critical Success Factors (CSFs) Method and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis, e-government indicators of different countries were compared and finally a roadmap was suggested for a successful e-Turkey implementation.

This thesis analyzes the influences of three eminent social scientists on Ottoman historiography. Fernand Braudel, Immanuel Wallerstein and Michael Mann are three important scholars, who challenged the paradigms of world historiography in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, whereas the studies of Braudel and Wallerstein made more strong impacts on the area, the influences of Mann remain limited. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the influences of the former two scholars on Ottoman historiography and then to discuss the reasons of relative omission of Mann&rsquo / s perspective in the area. Moreover, it was aimed to make a very brief introduction to a new perspective on Ottoman history according to Mann&rsquo / s original model.

Within this thesis, the dominant conceptualisations of the state/market and the national/global within international political economy are put into a critical scrutiny. It is emphasized that within most of the analyses of globalisation and the state, these conceptualisations are built in a dualist manner and that the internal relation between them is ignored. Within this context, it will be focused on three prominent approaches in contemporary international political economy literature, namely regulation approach, neo-Gramscian approach and open Marxism which scrutinise the relation between globalisation and the state. Through an analysis of the methodological and conceptual frameworks of regulation and neo-Gramscian approaches with a particular focus on the relationship they posit between globalisation and the state, the political/ economic and the national/ global conceptualisations of these approaches will be criticised for being dualist. Such a criticism will be developed by deriving insights from open Marxist perspective which provides a relational conception of the political/economic and the global/national and, through emphasizing that globalism is inherent in capitalism and capital is a global social relation which cannot be taken as separate from labour, perceives the state and market as internally related forms of capitalist social relations of production.