The de-europeanization process in a candidate country: analyzing the domestic receptiveness for EU norms

After the destructions of the Second World War, the European Union was founded in order to avoid another war and has evolved into a significant actor which promotes certain values and norms ranging from democracy to protection of human rights. With regards to the influential aspect of the Union, the external incentive model attempts to explain how the European Union has had a great impact on transforming other countries into adopting the norms and values of the Union as in the example of Central Eastern European Countries’ compliance which led to the big bang enlargement. The question of how effective the conditionality tool of the Union has been one of the main focus points of the literature regarding the European Union. A puzzling case for the influential aspect of the Union is Turkey. The relations between the European Union and Turkey have encountered different phases including both ups and downs. However, the success of the conditionality of the Union which can change due to divergent aspects of conditionality ranging from the credibility to the size and speed of rewards has been controversial in the example of Turkey with its declining compliance over the years. The thesis will examine how Turkish compliance decreased over time and will show expectation between the credibility of conditionality and compliance through examining the regular progress reports of Turkey and indexes with regards to fundamental right