Turkey and the European Chicken-and-Egg Problem
Turkey and the European Chicken-and-Egg Problem

Towards a Value-Rational Approach to Europeanization

Summary/Abstract: In light of a new low in EU-Turkey relations, it is urgent to formulate a new stance. The article sketches a new approach to Europeanization, suggesting that we must change our perspectiveon the relation between politics and society and privilege an organic bottom-up Europeanizationin Turkey over a Europeanization ‘from above’. That is because a top-down Europeanization wholly driven by EU conditionality is unsustainable in the long run since reforms are not passed for intrinsic motives. Instead, the incentive of EU membership should be removed for Turkey in order to enable a fully value-rational commitment to implementing EU standards irrespective of gains from EUmembership. To facilitate this process, the EU should strengthen Turkey’s civil society and foster bottom-up change through transnational exchange by implementing visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens. Also considering the political consequences for the EU, the article concludes that an end of the accession talks may, in fact, allow for a more sustainable EU and a more sustainable Europeanization in Turkey.

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