Politics and the bureaucracy in policy making process: a general framework and its application to the Turkish case

Abstract

The aim of this Master Thesis is to construct a framework to analyze interactions between politics, society, and the bureaucracy with each other. This framework is then adapted to the Turkish case to model policy making mechanisms in economic issues. When the bureaucracy emerges as a separate actor in the political field, the relationship between political actors and the society significantly changes. It may mitigate the problems observed in this relationship by providing an information and commitment mechanism or it may lead to a new set of problems. Unless politicians are able to 'discipline' the civil service, they cannot govern the state. The furkish case is an example of how participation of the bureaucracy to the relationship between politics and society affects economic variables.