Social democratic parties and European integration : the case of the Turkish Republican People's Party

Abstract

This thesis analyses the attitudes and behaviour of the Republican People’s Party towards European integration and Turkey’s European Union membership process. It aims to contribute to the literature by investigating the relation of social democratic parties vis-à-vis European integration. The main inquiry is how and under what conditions the Republican People’s Party as a social democratic party, shapes its position towards European integration. The study argues that the Republican People’s Party has been a historically a pro-European political party, however due to conditional situations, it has been a soft Eurosceptical party after 2002.