Therefore, according to these critics, it does not have the capacity required to carry Turkey to the long-term objectives defined by European standards.However I find these criticisms unfair and have a quite positive view of the program. Let me start by giving an early reference to the government’s dedication to a new civil, society-based and participatory legislation. Even if we leave aside any other agendas involved in the program, only the amendment of a modern and inclusive legislation with the required capacity to capture the realities of the contemporary world, to release the societal energy and to create an open society, will be a step radical enough to overhaul the malfunctioning state system.
As it is well known, the state structure in Turkey, including all its branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial) at both the national and local levels, has been shown to be ineffective -- even irrelevant -- when faced with the ingrained demographic, social, economic and political exigencies of the country. Despite several reforms implemented recently under global pressures and the necessities of public finance, the core of the state mentioned above has remained untouched.
Conventional rhetoric so far has limited solutions to the required administrative reforms. Partial reforms have therefore failed to provide sustained solutions. However Turkey’s determination to become a full member of the EU also necessitates a comprehensive and radical overhaul of the Turkish public sector with respect to efficiency and productivity criteria.
As a matter of fact, around the 1980s, while Turkey had taken several serious steps in reforming its archaic economic system, a political system fashioned by a military coup remained untouched. Therefore in the economic realm there has been an open system, whereas in the political realm a rigid system survived that has been strictly excluding the principles of accountability, fair competition and transparency. Therefore, with the passage of time, a division between the political and the economic emerged. As a result of this dual structure, Turkey was captured by small interest-seeking mafia groups and ties to clients, leading to the well-known crony capitalism of the 1990s, the lost decade of the country.
After 27 years Turkish democracy has reached a historic turning point, of course with the help of external anchors such as the EU, to overthrow such an anti-democratic constitution and replace it with a new one. That is why there is enough reason to believe we have quite a large and exciting agenda for the coming five years.
However, there will be very strong resistance to the proposed reforms. Therefore let me note some earlier warnings to the government. While carrying out the required reforms, two important elements must be understood: First, the new constitution should release societal energy at almost every level and segment of the society in the country. As we are getting prepared to be a full member of the EU, the new constitution must reflect the current European standards without any major reservations.
Second, as an EU candidate, it must also be accepted beforehand that mutual dependency rather than absolute independence is the rule of the game. As it is known, public administration organization has epitomized the notion of sovereignty that has emerged from the Westphalian construct of the nation-state. However, the EU means that states voluntarily share important elements of their sovereignty. Constitutional reform must involve the reform of the judicial system and administrative structure, and must allow the delegation of some power to local governments.
Unless Turkey carries out these and other similar reforms as soon as possible, we can easily predict that recent progress on the economic front is unlikely to be sustained. For instance, think about the reform toward the currently under-performing social security system. The initial attempt to reform it by the AK Party government was prevented on the basis of existing legislation. Many other examples could easily be chosen to show that a new and civil constitution is a sine qua non of sustained and deepened current and future economic performance.
