Policy entrepreneurship, policy opportunism, and EU conditionality: the AKP and TÜSİAD experience in Turkey

Ugur, Mehmet and Yankaya, Dilek (2008) Policy entrepreneurship, policy opportunism, and EU conditionality: the AKP and TÜSİAD experience in Turkey. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 21 (4). pp. 581-601. ISSN 0952-1895 (print) 1468-0491 (online)

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between European Union (EU) conditionality for membership and policy entrepreneurship in a candidate country. In Turkey, EU conditionality opened a window of opportunity for policy reform by lowering the political costs of controversial reforms. The study demonstrates that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) responded to a window of opportunity by advocating a series of reforms that represented a bold challenge to the traditionally reform-averse and Euro-skeptic political culture in Turkey. The study finds a difference in the duration of both actors' commitment to reforms. To explain this difference, we distinguish between policy entrepreneurs, who are actors with a long time horizon, and policy opportunists, who are actors with a short time horizon. The policy implication of this finding is that the European Commission's expectations of the AKP government to deliver the necessary reforms may be too optimistic.

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