Preventing Corruption in Turkey: Issues, Instruments and Institutions

The existence of corruption in Turkish political-bureaucratic system as a pervasive, entrenched, and enduring problem has long been an “open secret” for anybody involved even scantly in the public affairs of the country. In this chapter, we are interested in: a) pointing out the need for creating a coalition among the clean (politicians), the competent (bureaucrats), and the competitive (businesspersons) to wage an effective and enduring war against corruption in the country; b) explaining how juxtaposing three members of such a coalition with the three core issues, namely, political financing regime, public personnel regime, and public expenditure and procurement regime is both possible and plausible; and c) describing major characteristics of the three core issues, along with relevant instruments and institutions, as they relate to the efforts toward creating and/or maintaining “free and fair competition” within and across those sectors.We postulate that it is worth debating in depth the nexus between these three issues and the existence (or lack) of “free and fair competition” among politicians, public professionals, and businesspeople in Turkey. At the core of our analysis and assessment is the question of how and to what extent the major policy instruments and institutions currently in use in these three issue areas are contributing to or constraining the efforts toward preventing corruption in the country.We argue that policy makers and public at large better concentrate their energies and efforts on improving policy capacity and institutional design in these and other relevant issue areas so as to contribute to improving conditions for “free and fair competition” in politics, bureaucracy, and the business world, rather than limiting their focus to popular, yet not-so-practical “campaign-style anticorruption drives,” reflecting an outdated “fight corruption by fighting corruption” rhetoric.