Competitiveness Of Turkey Research Articles

The AKP in Turkey: Interior Politics and Foreign Issues

The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the understanding of the domestic patterns of the political competition in Turkey. Moreover, the paper will also focus on the new doctrine of Turkish foreign policy implemented after the electoral victory of the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP) in November 2002. In this article the AKP political platform is analyzed as a moderate pro-Islamic party because of its past connections with the Islamic National Outlook Movement of Necmettin Erbakan. In literature on the topic, all the Islamic political parties were connected to the political thought of N. Erbakan and known as the organizations of the National Outlook Movement tradition (Milli Görüş Hareketi). It should be noted that on this point, the first party was the National Order Party (Milli Nizam Partisi), second, the National Salvation Party (Milli Selamet Partisi), third the Welfare Party (Refah Partisi) and fourth the Virtue Party (Fazilet Partisi).

Public Procurement Auctions and Competition in Turkey

This paper empirically investigates the effect of the competitive environment (number of participants) on the cost of procurement. We use a unique dataset provided by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) of Turkey that covers all of the government procurement auctions for the years 2004–2006. First, after controlling for possible endogeneity, we show that the number of bidders significantly and negatively affects the procurement price. Thus, the existence of a more competitive environment significantly decreases procurement costs in Turkey. Second, when auctions are open to foreign participation, the auction price tends to be lower. Finally, prices in services and goods sectors are more sensitive to changes in the number of bidders than is true for the construction sector. The results of this paper have several policy implications for e-procurement and efficient procurement design.

Trichophyton tonsurans scalp carriage among wrestlers in a national competition in Turkey

Trichophyton tonsurans tinea gladiatorum is an emerging epidemic among combat-sport athletes across the globe. In the present study, we investigated the prevalence of symptomatic and asymptomatic dermatophytic infections among wrestlers in the National Greco-Roman Championship in Turkey. In total, 194 wrestlers from 32 provinces and 72 clubs were examined for scalp, trunk, groin, and toe web dermatophytic infections. We also administered a questionnaire to obtain information on the participants' lifestyles, wrestling characteristics, and risk factors for dermatophytic infections. The hairbrush method was used for scalp and trunk sampling, whereas a cotton swab was used for groin, toe web, and mat sampling. Three wrestling mats in the gymnasium were surveyed for dermatophytes using the touch preparation method. A total of 17 (8.8%) wrestlers harbored dermatophytes, and 22 strains were isolated: 13 (59.1%) T. tonsurans and 9 (40.9%) T. rubrum. These isolates were found on the scalp (8), trunk (2), forearm (1), hand (1), groin (3), and feet (7). In addition, we recovered 8 dermatophyte strains from the 150 mat samples (5.3%): T. rubrum in 6 samples (75%) and T. tonsurans in two samples (25%). T. tonsurans was only recovered from 11 out of 194 (5.7%) wrestlers. Scalp carriage represents the predominant (72.7%) clinical picture of a T. tonsurans infection in these Greco-Roman wrestlers in Turkey.

Conservative Globalism at the Crossroads: The Justice and Development Party and the Thorny Path to Democratic Consolidation in Turkey

The article builds on the premise that the standard left–right division is not a meaningful characterization of Turkish politics. Political competition in Turkey in the present era is increasingly characterized by a contest between ‘conservative globalists’ and ‘defensive nationalists’ and the political environment is marked by the conspicuous absence of a European-style left-of-centre social democratic party. The article investigates the kinds of influences that enabled the Justice and Development Party to enlarge its electoral coalition in 2007 suggesting an even bigger swing of the pendulum towards conservative globalists compared to the situation in the previous election of 2002. It also tries to highlight the inherent weaknesses of conservative globalism and points towards the absence of effective and constructive opposition as a means of explaining the recent instability and re-polarization in Turkish politics which constitutes a major obstacle on the path to democratic consolidation

Towards a New Turkish Party System?

This essay examines the impact of the 2002 parliamentary elections in Turkey on the Turkish party system. While the 2002 elections did not indicate a trend toward the stabilization of the electorate, they ushered in a number of important changes in the party system, including the rise to power of a political party with an Islamist pedigree, the emergence of a two‐party system in the parliament, and the replacement of coalition or minority governments with single‐party majority rule. After delineating the changes in the party system, the study discusses possible new paths for party competition in Turkey in the near future.

English is not available [TURKIYE, CEK CUMHURIYETI, POLONYA VE MACARiSTAN\IN CAM ENDUSTRiLERININ AVRUPA BIRLIGI PiYASASINDA REKABET GUCU

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the international competitiveness of the Turkish glass and glassware industry in comparison with the three Central and Eastern European countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Po/and) between 1995 and 2002. For this purpose, this paper firstly examines the similarity between the glass and glassware exports of Turkey and the three Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). The second goal is to measure the international competitiveness of Turkey and the other three countries in the three important glass sub-sectors (Glass tableware, Safety glass, Float glass and surface ground or polished glass) using Revealed Comparative Advantages (RCA) indices. As a result of this analysis, it has been observed that especially in the EU glass tableware and float glass sub-sectors, Turkey has a strong comparative advantage in compared to these three CEECs.

Persistence of firm-level profitability in Turkey

The dynamics of company profits for 172 of the largest manufacturing firms in Turkey are studied. A time-series analysis is used to estimate the long-run projected profits and firm-specific speed of adjustment parameters that measures the rate at which short-run rents are eroded. While persistent profitability differences across firms are observed, there is also a moderately quick erosion of rents except for the most highly profitable firms. Firm characteristics rather than industry effects account for the differences in permanent profits. Contrary to the widespread view that developing countries suffer from uncompetitive markets, the results in this paper suggest that the intensity of competition in Turkey is no less than in developed countries and similar to other developing countries.

Religiosity, support for şeriat and evaluations of secularist public policies in Turkey

Over the past decade the once marginal extreme right end of the Turkish ideological spectrum has grown both in size as well as in influence and has effectively reshaped party competition in Turkey. Policy mandates and electoral bases of the rising extreme right rely on potentially explosive social cleavages in the country. One such confrontation is between the secularist and pro-Islamist forces, which has always been one of the centrepieces of Turkish electoral politics. The rise of pro-Islamist electoral forces from a marginal to an undeniably imposing position in Turkish electoral politics has led many to worry that a deep-rooted schism has come to the forefront of Turkish politics. The front line of this secularist vs. pro-Islamist confrontation is quite wide, ranging from a debate around the ban on turbans and headscarves in universities to religious education in the country, from Islamic principles in the economy to Turkish foreign policy towards Middle Eastern countries. I aim to contribute to this debate by drawing an outline of the popular bases of support for the secular principles in Turkey reflected in debates over the civil code as opposed to shariah rule (seriat in Turkish) and a number of recent policies followed in especially the sphere of education. I first focus on the character of the much discussed popular support for an Islamic state or seriat and the public evaluations of one of the pillars of secularism in Turkey, that is, of the Turkish civil code. I demonstrate that while a significant portion of the electorate is not forthcoming in rejecting seriat as a whole, only a very small marginal group supports its implications. Secondly, I focus on several more recent public policies that were shaped during the '28 February process' that started in 1997, when tension between the secularist republican forces spearheaded by the military and the pro-Islamist Welfare Party (Refah Partisi RP) peaked. I demonstrate that compared with overwhelming support for long-standing secularist principles of the civil code, the approval of the recent policies are

Ideologies in crisis: political cleavages and electoral politics in Turkey in the 1990s

A case study of the Turkish political arena provides a window into processes of democratic consolidation at the margins of Europe. This study focuses on socio-political cleavages and aims to map the space of political competition in Turkey. This discussion is based on an analysis of the discourses that defined the 1995 national election campaign, in which the Islamist Party, the Welfare Party (RP), won a plurality of the votes nation-wide. Turkish media are used to identify four issue continua that defined the arena of competition in the campaign, and five political parties are placed at points along these continua. This study finds that, because Turkish political parties do not link economic and political issues in ‘typical’ right–left packages, a three-dimensional cleavage model that includes economic, political and ‘identity’-based dimensions best represents the coordinates of political competition in Turkey. In addition to creating a cleavage model for Turkish politics, this research explores the possibilities and limitations of applying social-cleavage models beyond the borders of Western Europe and the advanced industrial societies.

The Turkish Party System in Transition

CONTINUITY RATHER THAN CHANGE WAS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE Turkish party system during its formative years in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Now, however, party competition in Turkey appears to be approaching a new phase of development. While some political analysts have described the emerging trends in the 1970s with reference to a ‘critical realignment’ in mass electoral behaviour, others have characterized the party system as going through a period of ‘flux and transition’. Indeed, the recent course of electoral politics in Turkey displays some significant changes. First, with the termination of the Justice Party's UP) dominant position in party competition, there has been a transition from a predominant party system to one of moderate pluralism in which the likelihood of coalition government has significantly increased. Secondly, the trend toward greater fragmentation in the party system which partially accounted for the JP's loss of dominance in 1973, appears to have been reversed in the 1977 parliamentary election as the two major parties made substantial gains at the expense of the minor parties. Thirdly, these changes have been accompanied by the increase of ideological polarization in the party system and the intensification of ideological cleavages among the party elites.