CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Karaoguz, Huseyin Emrah |
|---|---|
| Title | The political economy of innovation: technological nationalism, executive interference, and neo-populism in the r&d sector in turkey |
| Summary | This thesis is about political economy factors that have influenced R&D policy-making processes in Turkey during the 2000s. The encompassing question is, how do political economy factors shape innovation policy? The central research question is, why did Turkish R&D policy change in the 2000s, and what political economy factors did affect the process? After engaging in a dialogue with the political economy of innovation scholarship, the thesis kicks-off with the assertions that politics matter in the study of innovation, and innovation policy-making is a multi-faceted process. Then, by relying on the theoretical arguments and insights of scholarly works that specialize in technological nationalism, developmental state, and clientelism, the thesis adopts a comprehensive framework for the analysis of R&D policy-making processes in Turkey. Each of the three scholarships focuses on a different layer of policy-making. And then, each empirical chapter zooms into a different dimension of R&D policy in Turkey in the light of the analytical framework adopted. The thesis relies on multiple sources and triangulation while making its core arguments. In specific, the thesis relies on 26 face-to-face semi-structured interviews (expect for the one which was conducted over the phone) with bureaucrats and relevant stakeholders in Turkey in different intervals between October 2014 and June 2016. In line with the thesis’ primary motivations, interviewees are selected from leading innovation agencies in Turkey. Main governmental and organizational policy documents, laws and regulations, and parliamentary discussions on key R&D legislation, are other important sources of information. The thesis supports a growing body of work on the politics of innovation policy by demonstrating the importance of the political realm in the study of innovation. The thesis also underlines the opposition parties’ role in R&D policy-making –a rather overlooked channel of influence in the scholarship. In this regard, the thesis argues that technological nationalism, and the opposition’s institutional weaknesses in policy-making, can potentially influence R&D policy by hindering the effective formulation and implementation of alternative policy options. This is found out to be crucial in the Turkish context. The thesis also offers potential contributions to the Turkish political economy scholarship. Among the essential ones, and besides the argument on technological nationalism and the weak opposition, the dissertation claims that (i) the executive’s continuous interferences with autonomous innovation agencies have influenced R&D policy in many ways in the 2000s in Turkey; (ii) rather than clientelistic relations (akin to the ones that are observed in the construction and the media sector in Turkey), a neo-populist approach has characterized the main rationale in R&D fund allocation to the private sector; and (iii) despite some positive steps undertaken, the Turkish state has yet to embody the essential traits of the ‘developmental state’ in the R&D sector. These findings speak to the broad scholarship on the Turkish political economy in important ways, and offer potential contributions via an in-depth elaboration of the R&D sector. |
| Supervisor | László Csaba |
| Department | Political Science PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/karaoguz_huseyin.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University