The Neoliberal Restructuring of Turkey's Social Security System

Date

2009-04-01

Author

Cosar, Simten
Yegenoglu, Metin

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For almost thirty years Turkish capitalism has taken the form of neoliberalism. Turkey's subordination to the world neoliberal order started in the late 1970s and was pursued consistently after the 1980 military coup. The coup reflected Hayek's contention that a transition to "free markets" may require a dictatorship.1 By dissolving political and social opposition, the coup provided the necessary political environment for the shift from the import substitution industrialization that framed economic policy since the 1960s to an export-oriented economics. During the interim regime (1980-83), Turkey experienced a fierce process of depoliticization, which limited the opportunities for an effective opposition against the launch of neoliberal policies. All segments of the labor movement that had made political gains in the preceding decade were banned from politics and the majority of prominent activists were imprisoned. The general elections held in 1983 were a farce. The military rulers banned all political parties that had organic links to pre-coup political organizations and that were in opposition to the coup and the interim regime, and allowed only three political parties to participate.

Subject Keywords

Geography, Planning and Development, Sociology and Political Science, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Gender Studies

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/64895

Journal

MONTHLY REVIEW-AN INDEPENDENT SOCIALIST MAGAZINE

DOI

https://doi.org/10.14452/mr-060-11-2009-04_3

Collections

Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Article

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Citation Formats

S. Cosar and M. Yegenoglu, “The Neoliberal Restructuring of Turkey’s Social Security System,” MONTHLY REVIEW-AN INDEPENDENT SOCIALIST MAGAZINE, pp. 36–49, 2009, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/64895.