State, Society and Privatization in Turkey, 1979 1990

This work analyzes the Turkish effort at privatization from 1979 to 1990, shedding light on the obstacles that arose in a country with a 50-year tradition of economic paternalism. From the creation of Turkey after World War I, state control, complete with state-owned firms and government financial institutions, was integral to the state and enshrined as a principle in the 1937 constitution. But with the oil shocks of the 1970s, major adjustments became necessary, and by 1979 a programme of privatization was begun.;The book's chief focus in examining the restructuring of Turkey's economy is on rent-seeking behaviour. Rent, in the economist's sense, is the gap between what an owner is paid for a commodity and what would be paid for it in the next best alternative. The classic and pervasive case of rent is selling under government license a good whose import quantity is strictly controlled, creating scarcity and making for a high price. Rent-seeking is what people do to win or keep that license.;Privatization in Turkey confronted widespread rent-seeking. This book argues that the success of such an economic policy requires key actors to build powerful coalitions of public support, including politicians, bureaucrats and special-interest groups, while containing rent-seeking to enhance development and eliminate social and economic waste.