The political economy of the state and social forces: Changing forms of state-labour relations in Turkey

The dissertation is a study of the Turkish political economy since the end of the 1970s, with the focus on state labour relations. It argues that despite the political regime changes in Turkey in the early 1980s (overthrow of democratic institutions by a military coup in 1980, and the passage to parliamentary civilian rule in late 1983), there were fundamental continuities in the Turkish political economy and the substance of state policies through the 1980s. Neoliberal restructuring of the economy, suppression of labour demands by direct state intervention in industrial relations as part of this economic restructuring, and marginalization of labour's representation in the state, characterized both the military regime of 1980–83 and the subsequent period of parliamentary civilian rule. Thus, unlike most of the writings on the recent wave of democratization, this study examines the issue of the continuity in the form of state despite the political regime change in the context of the Turkish case. The dissertation also shows, however, that the type of political regime was still important. It had an independent effect on the development of social forces and the particular nature of their interactions with the state.; After studying gradual changes in the trade union movement's strategy and actions in relation to the state and employers, the dissertation argues that the state's persistent anti-labour policies and its frequent direct interventions in the system of industrial relations in favour of employers inevitably generated counter-reactions from the labour movement. These counter-reactions took the form of the union leadership's adoption of a more active stance in defending labour interests, and rank-and-file militancy at the end of the 1980s.; I argue that there was an important attempt at a new social settlement inclusive of labour and other subordinated interests, but without abandoning the neoliberal economic strategy of the previous decade. However, this attempt failed because of the structural contradictions of the neoliberal economic model in Turkey, diminished autonomy for government policy as a result of the Turkish economy's further integration into, and dependence on, global financial markets, and reluctance of Turkish capital to make some concessions to labour interests.; This study situates Turkey within the context of the global political economy, and systematically examines the nature of relations between the Turkish state and major domestic social forces on the one hand, and international institutions and major western states that Turkey has close relations with, on the other. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...