Partisan politics of skills in middle-income countries: Insiders, outsiders and the vocational education system of Turkey

Abstract

The literature on the political economy of development argues that many middle-income countries could not develop strong vocational education and training systems because of the lack of political coalitions that would support such systems. However, these researchers have overlooked the role of partisan politics, domain of political competition and the links of insiders and outsiders with political parties. This article addresses this gap by studying the case of Turkey in the 2000s, when the country was governed by the Justice and Development Party and experienced important changes in its vocational education and training system. It investigates the political shifts in these years and the impact of these shifts on vocational education and training policies. The article argues that the governing Justice and Development Party played a key role in the changes in the Turkish vocational education and training system. Small and medium enterprises and labour market outsiders, which were the outsiders of the political and economic system, formed Justice and Development Party’s main constituents. Different from the previous parties, Justice and Development Party focused on the economic interests of outsiders and vocational education and training became an important tool to address such interests of both groups. The Justice and Development Party governments integrated the interests of both small and medium enterprises and workers into the vocational education and training policies in the 2000s, which has led to a vocational education and training system with high state commitment, higher firm involvement and higher permeability between vocational and general education. This research is based on process-tracing of the political dynamics and vocational education and training system developments in Turkey in 2002–2011. The data comprise primary and secondary documents, as well as interviews with several stakeholders.