Why Is There Still Europeanization in Turkey? Putting Fight Against Corruption Reforms Under Spot?

Research on Europeanization and domestic change has moved southeastwards and was provided with another real-world experiment when it has meet with Turkey. The EU has pushed incumbent governments to induce institutional reforms to comply with the Copenhagen Criteria and to adopt of the acquis communautaire. The fight against corruption is no exception. In the last decade incumbent government has introduced rather impressive amount of legal and institutional changes, and ratified the main conventions of the international anti-corruption regime. Yet, the adoption of anti-corruption reforms unexpectedly continued even though the credibility of accession conditionality declined over time. This paper argues that the continuation of reforms with regard to the fight against corruption occurs as a consequence of domestic choice of the Justice and Development Part (AKP) government. For the purpose of this study, the three dimensions of AKP’s conservative democratic identity -social conservatism, neoliberal economic views and political reformism- will be referred as distinct frames. Employing a qualitative framing analysis of the speeches of party leaders and debates in Turkey’s Grand National Assembly, this paper will show how fights against corruption reforms have become handy for the governing party in mobilizing the support of the electorate and promoting its own neoliberal economic agenda.