Competition Law Reform in Turkey: Actors, Networks, Translations

This article explains the shift from an initially European-oriented and politically motivated competition law, toward a U.S. style and aspiringly apolitical competition regime in Turkey. Translation is used as an analytic to capture the complex processes of such a shift. The article argues that this shift can be explained first by the broad turn toward the U.S. as a source of state expertise and knowledge production in the context of the Cold War. This broad historical dynamic could only be activated, however, by the emergence of a critical mass of policy entrepreneurs and state officials shifting the momentum of policy making away from national developmentalism toward neoliberalism.

Such a critical juncture, formed essentially by a generational shift, has been decisive in changing the character of competition law regime in Turkey. A new generation of bureaucrats ended up translating competition in a way that furthers their political goals. This process has contributed to the strengthening of a certain type of competition law regime or network globally. Regulatory Translations: Expertise and Affect in Global Legal Fields, Symposium, May 16-18, 2013, Istanbul, Turkey