Showing papers by "Ziya Öniş published in 2003"

A New Path Emerges

Abstract: The seismic Turkish election of 3 November 2002 was a peaceful, democratic expression of the deep anger felt by Turkish voters toward a political establishment known more for economic populism, clientelism, and corruption than for democratic accountability. Voters turned the tables on the established political class by completely reordering Turkey’s parliament and political landscape, bringing the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) 363 of the 541 elected seats in the unicameral Grand National Assembly, and leaving every other party except Kemal Ataturk’s old Republican People’s Party (CHP, 178 seats) shut completely out of that institution. Admittedly and somewhat ironically, the clarity of this democratic verdict was enhanced by the undemocratic 10 percent national threshold, which excluded all of the AKP’s and CHP’s competitors and gave each of the two successful parties a huge seat bonus: The AKP wound up with two-thirds of parliament on the basis of slightly more than a third of the popular vote, while the CHP gained the remaining third of the legislature’s seats with less than a fifth of the total votes cast. And yet producing such a clear two-party verdict was just what the Turkish electoral rules—written into the constitution by Turkey’s most recent military government as it prepared to cede control back to civilians in the early 1980s—were designed to do, though in the past had never managed to, giving rise to a series of complicated and sometimes shaky multiparty coalition governments instead. Ziya Onio is professor of international relations at Koc University in Istanbul. He is the author of State and Market: The Political Economy of Turkey in Comparative Perspective (1998) and the coeditor of Turkey’s Economy in Crisis (forthcoming). E. Fuat Keyman is an associate professor of international relations at Koc University. He is the author of Turkey and Radical Democracy (2000) and the coeditor of Challenges to Citizenship in a Globalizing World (forthcoming).

Financial Globalization, the Democratic Deficit, and Recurrent Crises in Emerging Markets : The Turkish Experience in the Aftermath of Capital Account Liberalization

Abstract: Financial globalization offers both risks and benefits for countries of the semi -periphery or the so-called "emerging markets". Politics within the national space matters, yet acquires a new meaning, in the age of fi nancial globalization. “Weak democracies" are characterized by limited accountability and transparency of the state and other key political institutions. Such democracies tend to suffer from populist cycles, which result in low capacity to carry out economic reform. Financial globalization, in turn, magnifies populist cycles and renders their consequences more severe. Hence "weak democracies" are confronted with the predominantly negative side of financial globalization which includes over -dependence on short-term capital flows, speculative attacks and recurrent financial crises leading to slow growth and a more regressive income distributional profile. The relevance of these set of propositions are illustrated with reference to the case of Turkey which, ind eed, experienced recurrent financial crises in the post -capital account liberalization era with costly consequences for the real economy. Two general conclusions follow. Firstly, there is a need to strengthen democracy in the developing world. Secondly, s ince this is hard to accomplish over a short space of time serious question marks are raised concerning the desirability of early exposure to financial globalization given the current state of the world.

The Turkish Economy in Crisis

Abstract: Domestic politics versus global dynamics - towards a political economy of the 2000 and 2001 financial crises in Turkey, Ziya Onis the lost gamble - the 2000 and 2001 Turkish financial crises in comparative perspective, Hakan Tunc on the structural weaknesses of the post-1999 Turkish disinflation program, Ahmet Ertugrul and Erinc Yeldan domestic needs for foreign finance and exchange rate regime choice in developing countries with special reference to the Turkish experience, C. Emre Alper and Kamil Yilmaz economic crisis as an instigator of distributional conflict - the Turkish case in 2001, Fikret Senses social capital and corruption during times of crisis - a look at Turkish firms during the economic crises of 2001, Fikret Adaman and Ali Carkoglu towards a sustainable debt burden - challenges facing Turkey at the turn of the new millennium, O. Cevdet Akcay and C. Emre Alper the Turkish banking sector two years after the crisis - a snapshot of the sector and current risks, O. Cevdet Akcay conclusion - the broader ramifications of Turkey's financial crisis, Ziya Onis.

Globalization, Democratization and the Far Right: Turkey's Nationalist Action Party in Critical Perspective

Abstract: Ultra-nationalist political parties of the far right have been an endemic feature of European politics in recent years. This article investigates the rise of the Nationalist Action Party (the MHP) in Turkey, a party that has a number of characteristics in common with its European counterparts. The objective of the article is to illustrate a paradox. These types of parties tend to display a considerable degree of adaptability and exhibit a tendency to move in a more moderate direction. They shed some of their violent and extremist leanings in the process as they try to transform themselves from closed communities or networks to mass parties of national standing. This apparent moderation should not disguise, however, the key underlying weakness of such parties, namely their limited commitment to the core values of liberal democracy and political pluralism. Indeed, such parties can continue to play an important negative role in terms of their ability to block the process of democratic deepening in nascent de...

Rethinking the Emerging Post-Washington Consensus: A Critical Appraisal

Abstract: The objective of the paper is to provide a critical assessment of the emerging post-Washington Consensus (PWC), as a new paradigm in the development debate. The paper begins by tracing the main record of the Washington Consensus, the set of neoliberal economic policies propogated foremost by key Bretton Woods Institutions like the World Bank and the IMF that penetrated into the economic policy agendas of many developing countries since the late 1970s. The paper then outlines the main tenets of the PWC, emerging from the shortcomings of that record and the reaction it created in the political realm. The paper, while accepting that the PWC provides a significant improvement over the Washington Consensus, draws attention to its failure to provide a sufficiently broad framework for dealing with key and pressing development issues such as income distribution, poverty and self-sustained growth.