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ADM4162 DEMOCRATIZATION & EUROPEANIZATION IN TURKEY

Course Objectives

The objective of this course is to provide  the students of political science with a theoretically-informed analysis of democratization in Turkey following the latest military regime (1980-1983) up to the early 2000s.  The main axis of the lectures and class is organized around the process of transition and democratization challenges by focusing on relevant actors and the specific issues of democratization reforms since the mid-1980s. Adopting a comparative perspective on democratization processes worldwide, the course material highlights the interplay between domestic and international forces in Turkish democratization to better comprehend the challenges of legal reforms and their implementation. In the first part of the course, major theoretical frameworks and conceptual schemes on transitions from authoritarianism, consolidation of democracy and the significance and the limits of external democracy promotion are reviewed.  In this context, democratization in the EU accession countries is approached as the political aspect of Europeanization. The second part deals specifically with the Turkish case analyzing the transition dynamics, political parties  and governments and legal -constitutional reforms towards democratization. The course ends with reflections on the recent global tide of democratic backsliding and the Turkish case.

Course Content

The objective of this course is to provide for students of political science a theoretically informed analysis of democratization in Turkey, with specific reference to the impact of the relations with the EU and Europeanization process. It is the intention of this course to emphasize the interplay between domestic and international forces (here mainly the EU) in the democratization process in Turkey, in addition to the general objective of providing a theoretical framework and a comparative perspective to the challenges of democratization in Turkey. This course will analyze the political reform process in Turkey as well as the challenges in institution-building and in democratizing the political culture at mass and elite levels.

Course Learning Outcomes

Students who have taken and passed this course will be able to:

-  demonstrate  in -depth knowledge on the modes and dynamics of transition to democracy in the late 20th century;

-  analyze the experiences of those countries (including Turkey)  who have been facing challenges in democratization ;

- display a theoretical understanding as to how to approach democratization as a process and how to asses the quality of democracies, in particular those which have been characterized by regression into degenerated forms of participation and inclusion;

-  demonstrate an awareness of  the recent concepts and approaches to asses and identify hybrid regimes;

- demonstrate an analytical perspective. and capacity  to study  the relative significance of domestic ad external factors in democratization

-  discuss  the context and the challenges of the Turkish case of democratizatization (transition and concolidation) and  the poiticall reform process since the late 1990s;

-  display a critical perspective to analyze the theoretical and empirical shortcomings  of the transition literature

-- analyze   the interaction of democratization and the EU accession process in Turkey since the post -Helsinki process in 1999;

--discuss  aspects of Europeanization as it related to the dimensions of democracy;

--analyze  the Turkish case of democratization reforms with regard to the issues of democratization at stake and the role of the domestic political actors as they have been responsive to both domestic and EU-related incentives.

Program Outcomes Matrix

0: No Contribution 1: Little Contribution 2: Partial Contribution 3: Full Contribution