Abstract:
This dissertation provides a political-economic analysis of Turkish telecommunications policy in the period of outward-oriented development after 1980. The dissertation combines the findings of the telecommunications policy research agenda with a structural analysis of global capitalism to better grasp policy formation in middle-income peripheral countries in the context of international financial crises and fluctuations and to shed light on real-world mechanisms of capital transfer. The dissertation analyzes Turkish telecommunications policy after 1980 in two periods. The first, between 1980 and 1994, was characterized by a public telecommunications leap. In this period, policymakers prioritized the use value of telecommunications. The second is the period after 1994 and was characterized by privatization for revenue maximization. It was a period in which policymakers prioritized the exchange value of telecommunications. As case studies, the dissertation analyzes the introduction of private capital to the mobile telephone segment in the 1990s, the advent of foreign capital through the introduction of another private operator in 2000, and the privatization of Türk Telekom in 2005. With respect to these case studies, the dissertation focuses on the political mediation of capital movements from the core to the periphery, the lobbying of core governments, and the role of the political forum as an essential mechanism of dispute settlement.
