Neo-developmentalist turn in the global political economy? The Turkish case

Abstract

The 2008 global economic crisis galvanized the debate on neo-developmentalism as the pendulum of economic thinking began to swing away from neoliberalism. The current shift in the modalities of market governance mainly deals with the ways through which industrial policies can be crafted in a more open-economy setting. Accordingly, the post-crisis literature turns a keen eye on the state's developmental role in the research and development (R&D) sector in an age of 'bit-driven' global political economy. On that note, the nature, properties, and limits of state policies of emerging powers in this particular realm are becoming increasingly central but remain an understudied theme. This article discusses the R&D policies of Turkey from a state capacity perspective and questions the rationale of those policies by linking the state's transformative capacity to the discussions on distributive pressures. Drawing on twenty-one in-depth semistructured interviews, this article assesses Turkey's R&D policies.

Türkiye’de Uluslararası Politik Ekonomi: Alt-disiplinin Gelişimi ve Mevcut Durumu

“…26 Turkish scholars have also focused on the origins and promises of the post-Washington Consensus 27 as well as its rather puzzling decline after the global financial crisis. 28 More recently, in line with the intensifying critique of the neoliberal paradigm that was coupled with the renewed importance of the state for attaining national developmental goals, Turkish IPE scholars have examined neo-developmentalist policies that governments in Argentina 29 and Turkey 30 have implemented.…”

The developmental state in the 21st century: A critical analysis and a suggested way forward

“…Ethiopia and Rwanda (Clapham 2018(Clapham , p. 1151 and Botswana (Botlhale 2017) are also among the African countries that embrace developmental state ideas. In Turkey, a developmentalist discourse is seen in the research and development (R&D) sector (Kutlay and Karaoğuz 2018). Many initiatives that resemble the steps taken in other developing countries are undertaken.…”

“…In fact, the evidence suggests that despite partial successes, the state of affairs is not as promising as it looks at first glance in the developing world. Among many issues that block the emergence of successful developmental states, such as difficulties in forging broad coalitions among actors (Doner and Schneider 2016), local business opposition to national projects (Vivek Chibber 2003), capital's structural class power in neoliberal globalization (Masondo 2018), common problems associated with embedded autonomy and bureaucratic coordination (Kutlay and Karaoğuz 2018), and external conditions (Rodrik 2012;Wade 2018, p. 537-539), one is particularly crucial, and has begun to be studied systematically by developmental state scholars: policy-makers, incentives, and good institutions. The key question is this: when do policymakers are genuinely motivated to pursue a painful, time-consuming, but effective agenda rather than a short-term oriented, populist, but a politically attractive one?…”

Turkey’s Pivot to Eurasia

“…Given that the 2008 financial crisis jeopardized mainstream economic policies and opened up new spaces to alternative policy sets, Turkish policymakers also adopted an increasingly hands-on approach in the field of industrial relations. As such, the government designed an industrial strategy document in 2012 and launched several incentive packages to support private sector firms investing in high technology sectors (Kutlay & Karaoğuz 2018).…”