Political conditionality and elites in the Europeanisation process: The case of Turkey

Political conditionality is one of the fundamental policy tools used by the European Union in the enlargement processes. This tool promotes several comprehensive reforms in the candidate countries in accordance with EU norms and policies while obliging the candidates to comply with the Union?s conditions in order to become an EU member. Within this context, conditionality functions both as an Europeanisation mechanism and a means of external influence on the candidate countries. Factors and actors at different levels are effective on the compliance patterns of the candidate countries. The relationship between political conditionality and compliance is based upon a process shaped by theinteractions of EU-level and domestic dynamics. Political elites in the candidate countries play a key role in this relationship as domestic mediators. The attitudes of these elites, either taking the required measures or resisting the compliance, have direct implications for the functioning of political conditionality. On the other hand, the responses of political elites to the conditionality are not independent of the interactions between EU-level and domestic factors. In the case of Turkey, the effectiveness of political conditionality shows different patterns periodically. Due to the interactions of EU-level and domestic dynamics, the functioning of conditionality is characterized by ups-and-downs in the periods of 1999-2002, 2002-2004 and post-2005. These dynamics also determine the approaches of political elites to the conditionality. In this thesis, the responses of political elites are explained on the basis of four main logics of security-related concerns, interests, rights and identity. It is concluded that these logics are influential on the attitudes of elites as well as on their political discourses. In line with the periodical dynamics, the priority of the logics in the approaches and discourses of elites can be subject to change.