Domestic politics or EU influence: what is driving Turkey's constitutional reforms?

Armlovich, Levi

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/49570 Copy

Description

Title

Domestic politics or EU influence: what is driving Turkey's constitutional reforms?

Author(s)

Armlovich, Levi

Issue Date

2014-05-30T16:50:27Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Kourtikakis, Konstantinos

Department of Study

Liberal Arts & Sciences

Discipline

European Union Studies

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Turkey
• Turkish constitution
• Turkey-EU relations
• European Union
• EU Enlargement
• Turkish constitutional amendments
• constitution
• Turkish-European Union relations

Abstract

Since its current constitution was promulgated in 1982 Turkey has passed 17 amendment packages with more than 100 individual changes made to the constitution. Most of this constitutional reform has happened since the European Union (EU) announced that Turkey had achieved candidate status for eventual membership in the Union in 1999. Many scholars attribute Turkey’s democratization, of which constitutional reform is an important part, to the EU’s decision to open its doors to Turkey. However other scholars argue that reform is driven primarily by Turkey’s domestic political parties, and that while the EU plays a role in Turkey’s reform process, that reform is secondary to the changing domestic political landscape. In this thesis I examine the constitutional reforms passed in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2008, and 2010 in order to address the question of whether EU influence or domestic politics is the primary driver of constitutional change in Turkey. I will demonstrate that while both lines of argument are true, each has its limits. During the 1999-2005 period the EU served as the primary driver of constitutional change in Turkey, but by 2005 Turkey had enacted the majority of the constitutional reforms required by the EU, and thus post-2005 domestic political parties were the primary drivers of further constitutional change.

Graduation Semester

2014-05

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/49570

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2014 Levi Armlovich

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