Civil society and democratization in Turkey: a critical evaluation of civil society-democracy relationship in the context of Turkey EU relations

Download

index.pdf

Date

2006

Author

Yeşiltaş, Özüm

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

296
views

86
downloads

This thesis tries to analyze the role of civil society within the process of democratization in Turkey with special reference to the impact of civil society policies of the EU on the internal operating styles of civil society organizations in Turkey. In this respect, a critical evaluation of the said issue was tried to be put forward in the sense that the extensive discussions on the concept of civil society were examined and gathered with the observations and empirical evidence gained on the subject in order to reach an answer on the very nature of civil society-democracy relationship. In doing this, the purpose was to uncover the reasons behind the recent popularization of the concept as an indispensable precondition of democracy and to question whether certain circumstances exist under which the term may rather harm than enable the process of democratization. Within this framework, the consideration of the civil society policies of the EU implemented in Turkey was seen as all the more necessary because of the fact that the process of Turkey’s EU membership has major implications for not only the process of democratization in Turkey, but also on the development of civil society as a significant part of this process. In accordance with the purpose of the study, in order to understand the extent of democratic capacity of civil society organizations in Turkey and the impact of the EU in that sense, a field research was conducted in Ankara, Turkey with the participation of 46 CSOs active mostly in the fields of women, children, disabled, human rights and environment. Through the field research, the main purpose was to understand the dynamics of the internal operating styles of those organizations, their views concerning the relations between CSOs as well as between the CSOs and the state on the one hand, to measure the extent to which their participation to civil society programs of the EU influence their intra-organizational structures on the other. According to the results of the field research, over the experience of 46 participant organizations, an analysis of the extent to which the EU-implemented civil society programs serve for the building of democratic capacity of civil society organizations in Turkey was tried to be made.

Subject Keywords

General social sciences., European Patent System.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12607779/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/16001

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

A content analysis of the security dimension of the Turkish accession to the European Union Sayın, Ayşe; Kahraman, Sevilay; Department of European Studies (2008) This thesis aims to analyze the security relations between Turkey and the European Union within the context of enlargement. In this framework, firstly, the historical background of the changing dynamics of their bilateral security relations is studied by focusing both on the Cold War and the Post Cold War periods. In this historical study, more emphasis is put on the Post Cold War period where the changing security understandings of both Turkey and the EU, major developments leading to adoption of new mecha...
Adaptation of Turkey to the European Union research and innovation policies during the accession period Atmaca, Serkan; Ege, Aylin; Department of Science and Technology Policy Studies (2006) The aim of this thesis is to analyze the adaptation of Turkey to EU research and innovation policies in the light of developments in within their own dynamics, and within the framework of obligations of the accession period. A comparative analysis of Turkish and EU policies is made by pointing out the weaknesses of Turkey, which are supported by related indicators specifying the gap between EU in research and innovation capabilities. In accordance with the findings of the comparison of Turkey and EU, this s...
Rights-based civil society organizations and democratization in Turkey Tanca, Dersu Ekim; Alpan, Başak Zeynep; Department of European Studies (2019) This thesis investigates the role of the rights-based civil society organizations in promoting democratization in Turkey. I consider rights-based civil society organizations as focal actors for democratization because they initiate, secure and advance democratic rule by upholding liberties and freedoms. From the late Ottoman period to the 198ights-based civil society organizations were absent. However, after the 1980s, they emerged to represent different right themes. By employing the existing literature on...
Civil society at the boundaries of public and private spheres: the internal dynamics of three cases in Turkey Cengiz, Kurtuluş; Akşit, Bahattin; Department of Sociology (2005) This study tries to understand the internal dynamics of the civil society organizations in Turkey on the experiences of three CSOs: the Ankara Branches of KADER, MAZLUMDER and IMO by focusing on the intraاorganizational practices (the decision making processes, elections, general meetings, division of labor, basic conflicts and divergences, the disagreements, the way of deliberation and consensus). It tries to shed light on the transformative potential of the CSO̕s in public sphere as civil organizations th...
Civil society in Turkey: the experience of civil society organizations Tabakoğlu, Bahar; Akşit, Bahattin; Department of Sociology (2002) This study concentrates its attention on civil society organizations (CSOs) - associations, foundations, chambers and unions- with a view to comprehending the existing situation of civil society in present-day Turkey. The research endeavors to catch the relationship between the state and CSOs and the relationship among the CSOs through the perspectives of the actors of civil society (the administrators and members of CSOs) and to describe the main social and political orientations of these actors. The study...

Citation Formats

Ö. Yeşiltaş, “Civil society and democratization in Turkey: a critical evaluation of civil society-democracy relationship in the context of Turkey EU relations,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2006.