The New Age of Hybridity and Clash of Norms: China, BRICS and Challenges of Global Governance in a Post-liberal International Order

This article sketches an analytical framework to account for new patterns of global governance. We characterize the emergent post-liberal international order as a new age of hybridity, which signifies that no overriding set of paradigms dominate global governance. Instead we have a complex web of competing norms, which creates new opportunities as well as major elements of instability, uncertainty and anxiety. In the age of hybridity, non-Western great powers (led by China) play an increasingly counter-hegemonic role in shaping new style multilateralism – ontologically fragmented, normatively inconsistent, and institutionally incoherent. We argue that democracy paradox constitutes the fundamental issue at stake in this new age of hybridity. On the one hand, global power transitions seem to enable ‘democratization of globalization’ by opening more space to the hitherto excluded non-Western states to make their voices heard. On the other hand, emerging pluralism in global governance is accompanied by the regression of liberal democracy and spread of illiberalism that enfeeble ‘globalization of democratization.

Global Shifts and the Limits of the EU’s Transformative Power in the European Periphery: Comparative Perspectives from Hungary and Turkey

This article highlights the weakening of the EU’s transformative capacity in the broader European periphery in a rapidly shifting global order, with reference to Hungary and Turkey. Although Hungary is an ‘insider’ and Turkey a relative ‘outsider’, their recent experiences display strikingly similar patterns, raising important concerns about the EU’s leverage. Under the influence of strong nationalist-populist leaders backed by powerful majorities, both countries have been moving in an increasingly illiberal direction, away from well-established EU norms. The article proposes an analytical framework based on a combination of push and pull factors that are driven by changing global political economy dynamics, which explains the EU’s declining appeal in its periphery, not only in reference to the internal dynamics of European integration and its multiple crises, but also the appeal of illiberal versions of strategic capitalism employed by rising powers, which serve as reference points for the elites of several states in diverse geographic settings

The dynamics of emerging middle-power influence in regional and global governance: the paradoxical case of Turkey

This article attempts to understand the properties, potentials and limits of middle-power activism in a changing global order. Extensive debate on the rise of emerging powers notwithstanding, the potential contributions of emerging middle powers in regional and global governance, and the imminent challenges they face in their struggle for an upgraded status in the hierarchy of world politics, is an understudied issue. This study aims to fill this gap by offering a broad conceptual framework for middle-power activism and testing it with reference to the Turkish case. In this context, the authors aim to address the following questions: What kind of roles can emerging middle powers play in a post-hegemonic international system? What are the dynamics, properties and limitations of emerging middle-power activism in regional and global governance? Based on an extensive study of the Turkish case, the authors’ central thesis is that emerging middle powers can make important contributions to regional and global governance. Their ultimate impact, however, is not inevitable, but depends on a complementary set of conditions, which are outlined in this study

Neo-developmentalist turn in the global political economy? The Turkish case

The 2008 global economic crisis galvanized the debate on neo-developmentalism as the pendulum of economic thinking began to swing away from neoliberalism. The current shift in the modalities of market governance mainly deals with the ways through which industrial policies can be crafted in a more open-economy setting. Accordingly, the post-crisis literature turns a keen eye on the state’s developmental role in the research and development (R&D) sector in an age of ‘bit-driven’ global political economy. On that note, the nature, properties, and limits of state policies of emerging powers in this particular realm are becoming increasingly central but remain an understudied theme. This article discusses the R&D policies of Turkey from a state capacity perspective and questions the rationale of those policies by linking the state’s transformative capacity to the discussions on distributive pressures. Drawing on twenty-one in-depth semi-structured interviews, this article assesses Turkey’s R&D policies

The Politics of State Capitalism in a Post-Liberal International Order: The Case of Turkey

This article discusses the transformation of the liberal international order, with reference to the ways in which global shifts affect the developmental paradigms among the emerging middle powers. Although it is rarely contested that the liberal order is being severely tested, the dynamics and potential consequences of this transformation are a matter of intense controversy. Also, the debate mainly focuses on great power politics, without paying adequate attention to the ways in which middle powers are influenced by and inform the transition to a post-liberal international order. By focusing on the case of Turkey, this article addresses whether non-Western great powers (Russia and China in particular) are leading the emergence of alternative order(s), and if so, through which mechanisms. Based on the reciprocal interactions between ideas, material capabilities, and institutions, I argue that the preferences of the Turkish ruling elites seem to be gradually shifting from a Western-oriented liberal model towards a variety of “state capitalism” as an alternative developmental paradigm in a post-liberal international order

Politics of New Developmentalism: Turkey, BRICS and Beyond

This chapter explores the transformations in the international order and the responses of emerging powers to the on-going shifts with specific reference to Turkey and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The global diffusion of power and the accompanied rise of non-Western economies are contributing to the emergence of a new world dis-order. This chapter offers a push-and-pull framework to account for the changing forms of state-market relations in the developing economies in a changing global system. 1 It maintains that internal crises of the neoliberal economic paradigm constitute the “push” dynamics for countries located in the periphery of global capitalism and liberal international order. This chapter, furthermore, suggests that the “pull” dynamics also inform the emerging economic and political regimes in the developing countries. Accordingly, in the post-hegemonic era, emerging great powers – such as China and Russia – seem to have demonstration effects for developing countries with their distinct economic and political models – defined by some researchers as “state capitalism.” The chapter suggests that new forms of developmentalism in the emerging great powers make their way to other late-developers with particular reference to the Turkish political economy. The rest of the chapter proceeds as follows. The following section focuses on the internal crises of liberal market economy and liberal democracy. The third section discusses the rise of BRICS with particular reference to alternative developmental models put into implementation in these polities. The fourth section discusses the paradoxes and contradictions of state capitalism in the emerging world with reference to the Turkish case. The final section concludes the chapter

Understanding Oscillations in Turkish Foreign Policy: Pathways to Unusual Middle Power Activism

The conventional literature on the role of middle powers emphasizes the importance of soft power, niche diplomacy, and coalition building. This article explores a case of unusual middle power activism with a focus on recent Turkish foreign policy behaviour. It demonstrates how the interaction of domestic politics and external dynamics produced an unusual degree of foreign policy activism, going well beyond conventional middle power behaviour, with the government increasingly employing coercive diplomacy and militaristic methods. We demonstrate that unusual middle power activism in a shifting international order yielded “populist dividends” to the ruling elite in the short run but led to a “triple governance crisis” in the economy, politics, and foreign policy, with each element feeding into the others in a path-dependent fashion

The EU’s Truth by Omission: Learning and Accountability after the Eurozone Crisis

While the literature generally frames crises as catalysts for organizational learning, most theories focus on ‘success’ stories of learning–ex post facto explanations of why certain ideas gained traction after a specific crisis. Less emphasis has been placed on lessons that were likely to be drawn, but were not. In probing this point, we explore the EU’s selective learning after the recent Eurozone crisis. Reforms were mostly top-down institutional and macroeconomic ones, while good practices developed by individual European states in the domain of accountability were ignored. In particular, we focus on the absence of a truth commission, an independent institutional mechanism mandated to carry out a forensic investigation of crisis management and convert past policy failures into lessons for future institutional reform. Why, despite the direct exposure of EU policymakers to these commissions, did this institutional mechanism not travel to Brussels? Drawing on semi-structured elite interviews and primary sources, we argue only organizations with an embedded institutional capacity for self-reflection (meta-learning) possess the required institutional skills to put certain issues into the spotlight

Governance crises and resilience of authoritarian populism: 2023 Turkish elections from the perspective of Hirschman’s ‘exit, voice, and loyalty’

The May 2023 elections in Turkey are puzzling because public support for President Erdoğan did not erode despite political-economic failures of considerable magnitude. The economy was ailing, the government’s performance in containing natural disasters was dismal, and oscillations in foreign policy were perplexing. Yet, Erdoğan managed to win elections once again, giving him the mandate to continue ruling the country over the next five years. What explains this political outcome in the face of ‘multiple governance crises’? We adopt Albert O. Hirschman’s ‘exit, voice, and loyalty’ framework to explain the multiple but interrelated sources of the resilience of authoritarian populism in Turkey. We suggest the ‘exit, voice, and loyalty’ equilibrium in the 2023 Turkish elections requires an integrated analysis along two dimensions, each interacting with and mutually reinforcing the other: the economy-identity nexus and the domestic-external nexus

Reverse transformation? Global shifts, the core-periphery divide and the future of the EU

The EU faces an existential crisis. The ‘liberal core’, which played an important role in transforming the illiberal regimes in much of the post-war period, suffers from a series of setbacks. This paper argues that the possibility of reverse transformation – that is, the power of the emergent illiberal bloc to influence the liberal core, has become a real possibility for the first time in the history of European integration. The paper contributes to the growing debate on the sources of the EU’s existential crisis and its future from a global political economy perspective. We suggest that a push-and-pull framework provides a coherent analytical toolkit to explain the properties and nature of the illiberal turn in the EU with its potential implications for the future of European integration