The changing roles of NGOs and economic interest groups in Turkey's Europeanization process

Abstract

This thesis discusses the changing roles non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and economic interest groups in governing Europeanization process of Turkey, as the accession country is under investigation here. The analysis of civil society involvement in this process provides opportunity to test the extent and limits of EU impact on civil society environment in accession states. The EU impact is in direct or indirect forms and leads to changes in the political opportunity structure by (a) dictating participatory mechanisms through acquis related mechanisms (b) building capacities of civil society by funding mechanisms (c) allowing transnational exchanges (d) injecting new ideas to the policy and politics realms. The EU's intervention in the domestic political setting acts to facilitate the socialization of non-state actors of accession states with the norms, rules ideas promoted by the EU and capacity based initiatives. In this way, civil society can develop new roles and/or internalize new identities. This research intends to determine the conditions under which the EU can socialize agents in the accession process. This study subscribes to the Europeanization research, but also maintains major reservations concerning top-down research designs developed to understand the domestic impact of the EU. This thesis aims to engage in theoretical puzzle on the limits of the EU impact or its differential consequences. The independent variable is the empowerment mechanism that the accession process brings to non-state actors in Turkey. The puzzle of the top-down approach is the indefinite impact of the changing opportunity structure on accession states. In the case of civil society, despite the accession process potentially leading to the empowerment of non-state actors, outcomes might be ambiguous and unexpected for various reasons. In the process of Europeanization of Turkey, divergent modes of mobilizations of NGOs and economic interest groups are explained through the extent of their resource capacities and the way they ideationally frame Europeanization process. The results obtained indicate, the changing opportunity structure empowers non-state actors in greater extent if they show support for Europeanization of Turkey, signify EU's acquis mechanisms and invest in their organizational capacities. Moreover, this thesis reveals the structural conditions that lead to ambiguous impact of the EU on civil society environment. The material and political opportunities that the EU might offer and involvement of non-state actors is not reflexive since political system in Turkey are marked by underdevelopment of civil society and un-regulated state- society relations. The empirical data is drawn from analysis of organizational documents, reports and semi-structured interviews conducted with the key representatives from the NGOs, public officials and experts from the field.