Ortadoğu ve Kuzey Afrika'da kapitalizmin çeşitleri: Karşılaştırmalı bir bakış

Middle Eastern studies do not generally keep pace with other regional studies. While emerging theories are quickly adapted and applied to specific contexts in Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe, Middle Eastern studies often suffer from exceptionalism. This thesis is aimed at accomplishing two goals. Firstly, it incorporates the Middle East as a region into general discussions concerning comparative political economy, specifically the literature of comparative capitalism, by outlining justifications for why the Middle East should be treated as an integrated region. It evaluates the explanatory power of different concepts or ideal types of capitalism and their applicability to the Middle Eastern context and maintains that patrimonial capitalism, which is a 'non-market type of capitalism', generally fits the Middle Eastern context well. Since patrimonial capitalism is a modern phenomenon which explains sub-optimal economic performance in other settings such as post-Soviet countries, this designation helps challenge culturalist and essentialist theories regarding the underdevelopment of the Middle East. By comparing the Middle Eastern context with post-Soviet countries through cluster analysis of 23 countries and using comparative case studies (Tunisia, Qatar, Russian Federation, and Iran), this thesis argues that patrimonial capitalism is not a monolithic concept and rather has its own sub-types. The incorporation of the Middle Eastern context into this literature via cross-regional analysis will thus enhance our understanding of patrimonial capitalism. Secondly, this thesis acknowledges the high degree of diversity across the region by classifying Middle Eastern countries into various subgroups of patrimonial capitalism. As Middle Eastern studies are currently dominated by analyses focusing on regime types and degrees of authoritarianism, this thesis will contribute to the regional studies and to our general comprehension of variations in political economies across the region by differentiating between oil-rich regimes along lines of vital institutional domains such as corporate financing, industrial relations, and regulatory frameworks.