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Distributional Dynamics in Turkey under “Structural Adjustment” of the 1980s1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Korkut Boratav ,
Oktar Türel  and
Erinç Yeldan
Korkut Boratav
Affiliation:
University of Ankara, Faculty of Political Science, Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, Department of Economics and Bilkent University, Department of Economics
Oktar Türel
Affiliation:
University of Ankara, Faculty of Political Science, Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, Department of Economics and Bilkent University, Department of Economics
Erinç Yeldan
Affiliation:
University of Ankara, Faculty of Political Science, Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, Department of Economics and Bilkent University, Department of Economics
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Extract

The economic and political crisis which Turkey faced during 1977-1980 was resolved by an orthodox stabilization program adopted early in 1980, immediately followed by conventional structural adjustment measures and the military coup realized on September of the same year. The Turkish experience with orthodox stabilization and structural adjustment incorporates a number of specificities and it will be useful to recall them briefly.

First of all, the striking element of continuity in basic economic policy orientation which lasted from 1980 up till 1089 without any significant reversals should be emphasized. The personal role of Turgut Özal as Vice Premier in charge of the economy during 1980-1982 under the military governments and Prime Minister during 1984-1991, was a determining factor in this respect. Reversals and hesitations as observed in Latin American experiences due to differences between rival monetarist schools or between populist and right wing political groupings played practically no role for almost ten years in Turkey. The political pressures which resulted in a switch back to populism in 1989 —a theme to be investigated in this paper— marked, in our view, a drastic shift away from the policy model adopted in 1980.

Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 11 , fall 1994 , pp. 43 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 1994

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Footnotes

1

This study was realized thanks to a research grant by United Nations University-WIDER as part of a project investigating medium-run development strategies of a number of developing countries. Thanks (with the usual disclaimer) are due to Lance Taylor and Bill Gibson for their contributions in shaping the conceptual structure of the research and to the entire project team with whom the issues taken up in this paper have been discussed productively for a number of times.

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