Domestic Transformation and Raison du Monde: Turkey's Nascent Competition State

Abstract

The complex issue of state transformation in the face of global economic integration has constituted the locus of the interdisciplinary globalization literature, attracting a myriad of contributions from the analysts rooted in various weltanschauungs and academic specializations. This study presents a theoretically informed comparative political economy analysis focusing on various manifestations of the competition state with special reference to Turkey. To this end, an overview of the competition state literature is presented in order to convey the main dynamics of political globalization under pressures for increased economic integration. Analytically, four crucial policy shifts propounded by the competition state theorists are taken on board. These include the transition from inflationary expansionism to neoliberal monetarism; the shift from macroeconomic to microeconomic governance; the shift from extensive interventionism to strategic targeting; and the shift from maximization of social welfare to promotion of innovation, profitability, and entrepreneurship in public and private sectors. An external dimension is added to these shifts in the form of the transition from a geopolitically determined national security mentality to the dominance of economic diplomacy and the quest for increased competitiveness. Following a vigilant analysis of Turkey's first and second generation neoliberal transformation experiments in light of these five profound policy shifts, the author concludes that the Turkish state could at best be described as a "nascent competition state" with varying levels of advancement in each of the studied dimensions.