The Europeanization of the Turkish Parliament

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine how the Turkish parliamentary system has changed due to its European Union (EU) candidacy, taking cues from extant scholarship on normative and rational institutionalist theories. Using EU treaty documents, we construct an ideal definition for European parliamentarism as a benchmark and explore areas of misfit for the periods of 1999-2005 and 2005-2010. Our process tracing of European Commission (EC) Progress Reports, European Parliament (EP) resolutions, transposition of EU laws, committee work and reports illustrate little actual transformation of the Turkish parliament, but some areas of absorption and accommodation, evidencing democratic conditionality triggering soft institutional change.