erc/metu
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN ECONOMICS  IV
September 13-16, 2000, Ankara

Neo-liberal Social Policy and Production Politics in Turkey

Gamze Yüsesan Özdemir (Abant İzzet Baysal University)

Abstract  

Production politics as concerned with the regulation, reproduction and transformation of social relations within the factory is shaped by the socio-economic and political context within which it is embedded. Managerial regimes of control and workers’ struggles over pay, conditions and status in the factory differ from country to country according to the character of state regulation, state-provided social insurance schemes, the economic policies, labour market dynamics and the politics and policies of trade unions. In the contemporary period, the politics of production bears the imprint of the neo-liberal social policy on a world scale. Hence, the limited effectiveness of government intervention, the cut in state expenditure and state welfare, the progressively deteriorating socio-political environment for labour and the deregulated labour markets stamp themselves upon production politics. The neo-liberal social policy does not only have the destructive effects of deregulation, mass unemployment and growing poverty but also undermine any alternative scenario to the countries seeking to secure social welfare of working class. Given the lack of an alternative scenario, this paper firstly reviews the ways in which neo-liberal social policy is interpreted and reacted to in Turkey. Secondly, it aims to analyse the politics of production behind the factory gates in Turkey in the context of the neo-liberal social policy. In other words, it explores how the struggles of management and workers in a terrain of contest are regulated by the extent of labour market dynamics and the extent of state involvement in the terms of social legislation, minimum wage, social security schemes, trade union activities and collective bargaining power.

Economic Research Center
Middle East Technical University
06531 Ankara Turkey
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e-mail: metuerc@metu.edu.tr