Paper Title: On the Europeanisation of Turkish Political Culture

This paper draws a comparison between European and Turkish political cultures and explores several aspects of Turkish political culture whose reform would signal its successful Europeanisation. It is argued that European political culture is an amalgam of different influences that was finalised in the process of EU integration. Despite the existence of parochial and subject elements in the political culture of many EU member states, European political culture departs from the vantage points of supra-nationalism and multiculturalism and epitomises participant political culture by fostering citizen awareness, participation and responsibility. It is also maintained that mainstream Turkish political culture developed a predominantly subject character under the influence of political and social developments in the late Ottoman Empire and early republican Turkey. Public trust, civil society activity, state tradition and national identity are representative of the parameters of Turkish political culture that can be instrumental in defining the extent to which the Europeanisation of Turkish political culture has been successful. It is finally argued that recent improvements in Turkey’s political liberalisation process can act as a signal that a convergence process between European and Turkish political cultures is ongoing