1\. Introduction 6 2\. Reaching out? From Membership to Accession
Europeanization 7 3\. Beyond Misfit and EU Pressure for Adaptation: Factors
Mediating Accession Europeanization 8 4\. It's the Domestic Structures,
Stupid! Scope Conditions for Domestic Change 10 5\. Turkey : A Case Sui
Generis? 13 Literature 17Research on Europeanization and domestic change has moved south-eastwards and
was provided with another real-world experiment when it has meet with Turkey.
This paper explores to what extent Europeanization approaches travel to
Turkey, which does have a membership perspective that looks, however, ever
less credible. The first part outlines the main findings of research on
'External Europeanization' focusing on factors that have limited or at least
qualified the domestic impact of the EU in the Central and Eastern European
(CEE) and Western Balkan (WB) accession countries. The paper, then, discusses
to what extent Europeanization approaches need further qualification when
applied to Turkey, which squares on democracy with the Western Balkans (with
the exception of Croatia), but whose statehood is less limited. We argue that
existing Europeanization approaches, largely, account for the overall moderate
degree of Europeanization in Turkey. Yet, selective and differential domestic
changes are mostly related to the extent to which EU conditionality helps
domestic actors gain or hold political power and push their own political
agenda. The paper concludes by summarizing the major implications Turkey's
accession to the EU has for Europeanization approaches and discussing why
Turkey is not a case sui generis
