The Political Economy of Turkey’s Integration into Europe

Political economy of Turkey's integration to Europe: Uneven development and hegemony analyses trajectory of Turkey's integration with Europe from a critical political economy perspective. It embarks on historical materialism and considers position of social forces in Turkey with the help of two analytical categories, uneven development and hegemony. Critical approaches have been so long sidelined within European Studies. Turkish enlargement is not an exemption. Turkey's EU membership perspective has not yet been analysed as a book in English from a critical political economy perspective. The data is generated through 109 interviews conducted at two historical junctures with five categories of actors: representatives of capital and labour, political parties, state officials, and struggles around ecology, patriarchy and migration. Was the pro-membership hegemonic in the 2000s? Was there any alternative project opposing membership? How do pro-membership social forces sustain membership perspective in the 2010s in a conjuncture of crises of liberalism? How do critical social forces re-consider their position? The book argues that pro-membership was indeed hegemonic in the 2000s, which was contested by two rival class-strategies, Ha-vet (No to Capital's Europe, but yes to Social Europe) and neo-mercantilism. In the 2010s, pro-membership is no longer hegemonic with its social forces encountering difficulties to provide moral and intellectual leadership while critical tone of opposing social forces increase.The future trajectory is uncertain. Yet, pre-eminence of transactional cooperation provides hints that unevenness will be further consolidated through market integration and management of migration for the labour market between Turkey and the EU.