Constitutional change in Turkey: The (De)Limited effect of Europeanization

The EU is a transformative actor, in the sense that its conditionality has been successful in inducing a change in the candidate states’ institutions and norms, including their main constitutional framework. The experience of Central and Eastern European countries during their accession process has been the main source in the literature in conceptualizing the process of Europeanization. However, the recent experience of countries such as Hungary and Poland under authoritarian populist governments, show that reversal from the European values may emerge after becoming members of the EU. Although the EU has mechanisms to safeguard its values, it has not been able to cease their de-Europeanization process. This thesis builds on the conceptual framework on Europeanization and de-Europeanization with a focus on constitutional change in Turkey, throughout its uniquely long accession process. This thesis evaluates the EU-Turkey relationship within the framework of Europeanization through the EU’s conditionality and traces Turkey’s de-Europeanization process in post-2005 with a focus on recent constitutional change