Dynamics of Change in Labour Market Policies in Pre-Accession Countries: Toward Europeanization of Flexicurity?

This paper examines the causal dynamics of continuity and change in labor market policies in pre-accession countries with a specific emphasis on flexicurity – the EU’s approach to labor markets. It aims to answer the questions of (i) how we can account for continuity and change in labor market policies in pre-accession countries, (ii) whether the EU plays any role in such processes, and (iii) if so, under what conditions the EU has an impact. It does so by examining Turkey as a ‘crucial case’ of Europeanization and relies on a bottom-up research design. Empirical data which is obtained through an analysis of legislative acts, parliamentary minutes and print media reporting as well as qualitative interviews with key policy makers and social partners is analyzed through process tracing techniques. The paper concludes that in policy areas in which powerful domestic interests (i.e. the ruling government and big business) neither show resistance to nor actively pursue reform (such as in the case of active labor market policies and life-long learning systems), the EU appears to play a causal role in bringing about change in the direction of the EES, thereby the scope of change appears to be conditional on the degree of adaptational pressure. In other policy areas whereby preferences of domestic interests are in line with the direction of reform envisioned by the EES (such as in the case of labor law and social security systems), the degree of change appears to be conditional on the strength of domestic institutional lock-in effects.