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<p>Turkey’s rule of law reforms in the early years of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government have been largely explained by the influence of the EU’s conditionality strategy. However, the recent authoritarian turn under the same government poses significant challenges to such rationalist perspectives that see the EU as the main driver of reforms through material incentives. This article criticises the extensive focus on external factors and the lack of causal mechanisms explaining how external and internal factors interact. In response, a&#xa0;constructivist perspective is offered, which suggests that the identities of political parties and their ideological conflict emerge as a&#xa0;prism that creates variations in Turkish responses to EU conditionality. Thus, this article shows how the historical Kemalist-Islamist struggle shaped the AKP’s changing perceptions of the costs and benefits of EU demands over time by comparing developments in the rule of law under AKP rule.</p>

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The impact of ideological conflict on the rule of law in Turkey: Contrasting reactions to EU conditionality

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年5月5日

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  • Murat Coşkun

摘要

Turkey’s rule of law reforms in the early years of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government have been largely explained by the influence of the EU’s conditionality strategy. However, the recent authoritarian turn under the same government poses significant challenges to such rationalist perspectives that see the EU as the main driver of reforms through material incentives. This article criticises the extensive focus on external factors and the lack of causal mechanisms explaining how external and internal factors interact. In response, a constructivist perspective is offered, which suggests that the identities of political parties and their ideological conflict emerge as a prism that creates variations in Turkish responses to EU conditionality. Thus, this article shows how the historical Kemalist-Islamist struggle shaped the AKP’s changing perceptions of the costs and benefits of EU demands over time by comparing developments in the rule of law under AKP rule.