The Political and Economic History of North Cyprus: A Discordant Polity.

• Author: Yazici, Ismail

By Tufan Ekici

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 283 pages, [pounds sterling]99.99, ISBN: 9783030134785

In The Political and Economic History of North Cyprus: A Discordant Polity, Tufan Ekici elaborately examines the historical evolution and economic development of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

(TRNC). Although it is a daunting task to write the first book-length economic history of Northern Cyprus due to pervasive scholarly disinterest in an internationally unrecognized state and the lack of related data, the author skillfully provides a comprehensive account of Turkish Cypriot governance and political economy in the TRNC since 1974. Throughout the book, Ekici uses official economic data released by the departments and offices of the TRNC, paying particular attention to the reliability and quality of the data. The use of parliamentary proceedings enriches the quality of the analysis.

This book is made up of nine chapters, including an introduction and conclusion. Chapter 2 presents several theoretical approaches and conceptual vocabulary terms, including de jure and de facto states, clientelism, and rentierism, to make readers familiar with the political and institutional frameworks in place in the TRNC. Chapter 3 introduces the economic and institutional foundations of Turkish Cypriot governance. Ekici gives a detailed account of the history of the key political parties in the country while demonstrating that the electoral system in Northern Cyprus was established on "shaky foundations" (p. 63). He argues that the Law for Housing, Allocation, and Property of Equal Value was the sign of the beginning of rentierism and clientelism in Northern Cyprus, which allowed both right-wing and left-wing parties to take advantage of this situation to gain political power. In Chapter 4, Ekici continues with a comparison of the economic developments between the north and south, and Turkey's relationship with the TRNC. He argues that while Southern Cyprus quickly took appropriate measures to recover its unstable postdivision economy, the politicians in Northern Cyprus hindered healthy economic development due to the "distributive rentier politics of clientelism" (p. 102). The spoils of war and

Turkey's financial aid were largely used for rentierism and political clientelism, which resulted in an unsustainable and aid-dependent economy.

Chapters 5 and 6 delve into the labor market and social security system in the TRNC. According to the author...