State, labor and crisis : the 1989-1995 period in Turkey

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Turkey

Approval Date: 2006

Thesis Language: English

Student: Hakan Arslan

Supervisor: OSMAN GALİP YALMAN

Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection

Abstract:

This thesis is an intendedly critical, non-deterministic/non-reductionist, and, a tentatively theoretical, post-disciplinary narrative of the class struggles in Turkey over the period of 1989-1995. Much of the argumentation draws upon a critical reading of the corporatist literature, and, radical Political Economy, specifically focusing upon Marx’s theory of distribution. Distribution is seen as, inter alia, a moment of production, as production-determined distribution. Wages and profits are argued to be determined as the joint effect of class struggles in production, in the realm of ideology/discourse, the condition of Labour, the State power, and, the organisational capacity of Labour. Particular emphasis is placed upon the formation of new Capital strategies in the late Eighties and early Nineties. More specifically, the ESK is seen as the archetype of the so-called competitive corporatism in Turkey. Competitive corporatism is a State form, a partial phenomenon, and, a question of hegemony.