Turkey's path to EU membership: an historical institutionalist perspective

Scholars have drawn heavily on new institutionalist approaches in the study of comparative European politics and European integration. However, these approaches have been neglected in the study of Turkey–EU relations, resulting in a significant gap in the academic literature. In particular, the extant literature fails to question the significance of domestic political institutional settings and also fails to ask what role Turkey's National Security Council (MGK) played in shaping Turkey's path towards EU membership. The Historical Institutionalist approach, and the associated concepts of path dependence and punctuated equilibrium, can help address these failures by highlighting the importance of two significant phases of Turkey's European policy: the MGK's tendency to rule through states of emergency and its incompatibility with EU membership criteria (1983–1997); and the curtailment of the MGK's powers and the EU's decision to begin accession negotiations (1997–2004). To substantiate the value of historical institutionalism, I will first discuss the utility of the approach and justify its selection as a framework for explaining Turkey–EU relations. I will then discuss, in general terms, the ways in which institutions shape political action and maintain long periods of stasis. I will then demonstrate the utility of the concept of path dependence in researching the interaction between the MGK's use of state of emergency legislation and Turkey's path towards EU membership. The final part argues that the changes in the MGK and in Turkey–EU relations can be best understood with the historical institutionalist concept of punctuated equilibrium