Title: Global Crisis, National Responses: The Political Economy of Turkish Exceptionalism
Abstract: Abstract With its dilatory and piecemeal fiscal activism and uncharacteristic aversion to IMF assistance, the Turkish government's response to the global economic crisis of 2008–9 diverged considerably from prevalent trends in other major emerging market countries. Underlying this intriguing pattern were Turkey's pre-existing policy and macroeconomic constraints, cognitive lapses on the part of policymakers, and the conjunctural dynamics of domestic politics. The interplay of these factors progressively narrowed the policy space for vigorous action, leading to a motley combination of reactive initiatives that neither offered sufficient protection to vulnerable social groups nor promised sustainable growth in the long run despite rapid short-term recovery. Keywords: global economic crisisfiscal stimulusIMFemerging marketsTurkey Notes The strong GDP rebound of the first half of 2010 (11.7 per cent in Q1 and 10.3 per cent in Q2) was in part due to the 'base effect' of the massive decline during the same period in 2009 (–14.6 per cent in Q1 and –7.6 per cent in Q2). Thus, three years into the crisis, Turkey is still struggling to reclaim its pre-crisis levels of output. See Akyüz (2009) Akyüz, Y. 2009. "Policy Response to the Global Financial Crisis: Key Issues for Developing Countries". In South Centre Research Papers No. 24, Geneva: South Centre. [Google Scholar], Green et al. (2010) Green, D., King, R. and Miller-Dawkins, M. 2010. The Global Economic Crisis and Developing Countries: Impact and Response Oxfam Research Report (draft) [Google Scholar], Griffith-Jones and Ocampo (2009) Griffith-Jones, S. and Ocampo, J. A. 2009. "The Financial Crisis and Its Impact on Developing Countries". 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