The thesis assesses the causes and implications of Turkey's alignment with European Union (EU) policies and institutions in the areas of technical legislation (TL) and antitrust between 1996 and 2010. It argues that EU conditionality, based on the promise of positive rewards such as full membership, largely accounts for Turkey's high record in adopting EU policies and institutions in both areas, in rational-institutionalist fashion. This is because, in welldefined periods, the Turkish government deemed EU conditionality credible enough to walTant major adoption activities. However, regarding TL, EU-related domestic utility considerations (DUCs) played a crucial pali in suppOliing the development of the implementation and to some extent the enforcement dimensions. In antitrust, adoption and enforcement were also crucially suppOlied by non-EU factors, not least the regulatory drive that followed the 2000-2001 financial crises. By contrast, social-constructivist EU-related factors only played a marginal role with regard to adoption, implementation and enforcement. To avoid a bias toward EU explanations, I use counterfactual thought experiments, and compare each positive case with a negative case, where alignment is very low. My negative cases are mutual recognition and state aid. The study reveals the purchase of DUCs in countries where the credibility of EU conditionality is problematic, such as Turkey. It demonstrates that different explanatory models may account for alignment in one policy area, depending on the dimension considered. Turkey's alignment has domestic and external implications. Domestically, although Turkey made important steps towards the idealtype of the EU-style regulatory state in both areas, the transfOlmation was largely reactive, and remained incomplete. Externally, Turkey's alignment scenario, as well as both policy areas' intrinsic characteristics, imply that Mediterranean partner countries' prospects for comprehensive regulatory convergence with the EU are weak. The study relies on primary and secondary sources, non-structured interviews, and extensive fieldwork.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:650075 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Misrahi , Frederic |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds