Turkey in the Global Economy: Neoliberalism, Global Shift, and the Making of a Rising Power.

• Author: Suleymanov, Turan

Turkey in the Global Economy: Neoliberalism, Global Shift, and the Making of a Rising Power

By Bulent Gokay

McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021, 224 pages, $36.95, ISBN: 9781788210843

The central aim of the author is to study Turkiye's political economic transformation into a mediumsized emerging power during the 20 years under AK Party rule and examine the channels of global development that have affected Turkiye's economy. The secondary aim of the author is to find out whether Turkiye's impressive economic growth is connected to the AK Party regime's decisions, policies, and performance, or did the country just find itself in the right place and conditions.

The author divides the 20 years into two sub-periods. The first sub-period covers 2002-2010, called the first AK Party era. According to the author, in this first sub-period, the AK Party government pursued neoliberal economic policies and made regulatory changes that created a favorable economic condition for foreign investment and the initial policy of regulatory liberalism was in the line of Western democracies. The AK Party wanted to revive the Turkish economy with exportled industrialization in parallel to liberal economic and regulatory reforms. Turkiye managed to establish a well-functioning and resilient banking system with regulations in comparison to other emerging economies.

During this period, Western economies with stable economies and low-interest rates were attracted to emerging economies. AK Party's neoliberal economic policies created a favorable environment for long and short-term Western investment in the country. A large amount of Western capital with low-interest rates flowed to Turkiye which helped the AK Party regime achieve its goal of rapid economic development and become one of the more promising investment destinations with a fastgrowing economy and stable economic conditions characterized by one-digit inflation. AK Party's economic policies and favorable global conditions led to the fast industrialization and economic development of Turkiye. This transformation resulted in better economic and social conditions for the Turkish people.

The second sub-period according to the author was 2010-2020. This is when the golden age of the Turkish economy, was hit by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. Financial crises and economic recession in Western economies diminished the demand for Turkish exports to the Western market and created a shortage of foreign...