Doctoral Dissertation Research: Welfare System Transformation in Turkey

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Doctoral Dissertation Research: Welfare System Transformation in TurkeyIntellectual MeritThis research argues that government response to changes in grassroots politics has been the critical force driving the shift from employment-based to income-based policies in the Turkish welfare system over the last four decades. There are three specific hypotheses: (i) welfare institutions contain and mobilize grassroots groups, (ii) the center of Turkish grassroots politics has shifted from the formal to informal proletariat, and ethnically from Turks to Kurds, (iii) the shift from employment-based to income-based policies is a political response to the shift in grassroots politics. The research will create a database of grassroots political events in Turkey since the 1970s using newspaper archives; perform regression analyses of large sample surveys; conduct grassroots interviews; survey official documents, reports, and parliament proceedings; and interview office-holders and welfare officials. This study will contribute to literature on recent welfare system changes, discussing the under-examined effect of social movements. Broader ImpactsThis study will help explain a global trend in welfare policies through detailed investigation of the Turkish case. It will increase understanding of political and structural causes of welfare policies and examine the informal proletariat?s ability to shape government policies. Additionally, this research will investigate bases of popular support for the Islamic government in Turkey and illuminate strategies which this pro-globalization government has pursued vis-à-vis domestic political and social challenges.