Policy translation in Turkish disability policy: The role and limitations of international organisations

Abstract

This article uses the case study of disability policy in Turkey to investigate how the policy of International Organisations (IOs) influences domestic policy and the ways in which domestic actors ‘assemble’ or re-‘assemble’ policies or construct ‘hybrid’ policy. Sociologists have devoted their efforts to finding reasonable explanations for how influence results in translating the policy ideas of international organisations (IOs) to the domestic context. Historically, IOs have been able to advance global disability policy developments; yet, there has been a significant gap in our knowledge of the detailed mechanisms of how IOs’ influence has been exerted at the domestic context. Drawing on both documentary sources and semistructured interviews, we found a combination of inspirational, and both direct and indirect coercive influence of IOs contributed to policy translation in Turkish disability policy between 1980 and 1999. However, there was no evidence for direct influence of neither IOs headquarters nor IOs Turkish offices in the policy translation in disability.