Regulatory neo-liberalism, neo-developmentalism, and Turkey’s contemporary political economy: Toward a hybrid model

The debate on change and continuity in the post-global financial crisis financial and industrial policy remains heavily contested. There is in particular an unresolved question on whether emerging powers have enjoyed increased or decreased opportunity for policy change. To explore this issue, this study analyses dynamics of post-GFC financial governance and industrial policy in Turkey. I specifically seek to identify patterns of continuity and change in organising policy and policy practices, and the balance between internal and external drivers in shaping outcomes. As well as agreeing with prominent analyses that post-GFC change dynamics should be characterized as incremental, overall I argue that a variegated agency displayed across industrial policy and financial regulation in Turkey’s contemporary political economy. I find that ideational change has taken place in the global political economy, and the agency of domestic actors and domestic institutions have significant influences on adopting and implementing policies in both spheres. Nevertheless, this thesis argues that the outcome in terms of policy paradigm change in the Turkish political economy reflects a hybrid model with financial governance remaining characterized by key neoliberal principles, and the state’s role in the real economy characterized by aspects of neo-developmentalism in the period between the late 2010 and the early 2018.