Turkey and European integration. Accession prospects and issues

Abstract:

This work is part of the Routledge series 'Europe and the Nation State', which explores the complex relationship between nation states and European integration and the political, social, economic and policy implications of this interaction.

The work is organised in four parts. Following an introduction, the first part consists of a single chapter exploring Turkish public opinion on EU membership and the influence of religious devotion and democratic values. Part two opens with a chapter on Turkish populism, addressing questions such as the undermining of democratic process, and why populism presents an economic and political barrier to EU membership. Turkey's economic mismanagement and the credibility of Turkey's commitment to integration with the EU are featured in chapter four. The Europeanisation of Turkish peak business organisations is the focus of chapter five. In part three, Islamist influences in Turkish politics and the redefinition of European and Islamic identities are explored in chapter six. This is complemented in the following chapter which addresses the tensions between secularist and Islamist and their influence on Turkey-EU relations.

Chapter eight, which opens part four, looks at the EU's influence on the reformation of Turkey's state-centric polity towards a more democratic, economic and pluralistic entity. Chapter nine explores the relationship between Turkish political parties and the EU discourse in the post-Helsinki period. The limits of convergence between Republican and EU-level, post-national citizenship conventions are the focus of chapter ten. An examination of Turkey's human rights record is offered in chapter eleven with specific attention given to the period since the mid-1990s. The editors close with a concluding chapter that presents some challenges to Turkey's accession process and the reforms that will follow from it.

The work will interest scholars, students and researchers engaged in EU studies or integration politics.

Mehmet Ugur is Jean Monnet Reader in Political Economy at the University of Greenwich, UK. Nergis Canefe is Assistant Professor of Political Science at York University, Canada.