Europeanization and devolution : centre-local relations in Turkey
Author
Çelenk, Ayşe Aslıhan
Advisor
Güney, Aylin
Date
2008Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
80
views
views
25
downloads
downloads
Abstract
This thesis analyzes the impact of the EU accession process over the central
and local levels of administration in Turkey from an institutionalist framework. The
analytical tools of historical and sociological institutionalism are utilized in order to
analyze whether Europeanization leads to devolution and the city of Kayseri
constitutes the case through which the EU impact at the local level is determined.
The main argument of the thesis is that although the EU accession process has
created a demand at the local level in terms of changing the power relations with the
centre, no institutional change has taken place so far in terms of devolution because
of the mediating factors such as strong state tradition, lack of self-government culture
and the political and historical context of the centre-local relations in the country and
the central level managed to reproduce its power vis-à-vis the local political actors.