Regional Governance in Turkey on the Road to EU Membership

In the last decades across many parts of Europe a
regional level of governance has been emerging, a
trend which has not been observed in Turkey despite
its extreme regional disparities. Since the Helsinki
summit of the EU leaders in 1999 when Turkey was
admitted as a candidate country, EU conditionality
has been increasingly challenging Turkey's
centralised territorial governance. This
book has two overall aims. First, it aims to identify
the key mechanisms through which institutional
stability has been sustained over time hindering the
emergence of a level of regional governance in
Turkey. Second, it examines whether and the
ways in which EU conditionality and/or
policy-learning is leading to institutional change
in the current period through a comparative study of
three regions in Turkey. This book addresses the gap
in literature on institutional capacity at the
regional level in Turkey and on the attitudes of
local and regional actors in Turkey to the issue of
regional governance and the EU. The analysis in this
book should be useful to professionals and regional
policy practitioners.

Autorentext

Ebru Ertugal, Ph.D.: Studied Political Science at the CatholicUniversity of Leuven, Belgium. Assistant Professor at the IzmirUniversity of Economics, Turkey. Areas of research interestinclude regional policy and governance, Europeanisation andTurkey-EU relations.

Klappentext

In the last decades across many parts of Europe aregional level of governance has been emerging, atrend which has not been observed in Turkey despiteits extreme regional disparities. Since the Helsinkisummit of the EU leaders in 1999 when Turkey wasadmitted as a candidate country, EU conditionalityhas been increasingly challenging Turkey'scentralised territorial governance. Thisbook has two overall aims. First, it aims to identifythe key mechanisms through which institutionalstability has been sustained over time hindering theemergence of a level of regional governance inTurkey. Second, it examines whether and theways in which EU conditionality and/orpolicy-learning is leading to institutional changein the current period through a comparative study ofthree regions in Turkey. This book addresses the gapin literature on institutional capacity at theregional level in Turkey and on the attitudes oflocal and regional actors in Turkey to the issue ofregional governance and the EU. The analysis in thisbook should be useful to professionals and regionalpolicy practitioners.