What are the Different Dimensions of the Economic Policy Being Implemented in Turkey?

Dear friends, I have often emphasised public policy in my writings. The main reason for this is that I believe that one of the ways to understand and analyse the underlying causes of each of the adversities we face as social problems is to look at events from the perspective of public policy. Because public policy does not occur by chance. The negative results are not the result of coincidences, but of what was done or not done wrongly. There is an even worse possibility, which is that the negative outcomes are the desired outcomes by the policy makers. Of course, this last possibility falls under the control of the judiciary within a state system that has completed its institutionalisation. 

Societies are dynamic structures. The most important characteristic of dynamic structures is their high level of complexity. This means that the results of the arrangements to be made in the social structure will be multidimensional. If the public policy process to eliminate a social problem is disconnected from scientific, rational and socially balanced principles, each solution will be the source of a new problem. Therefore, public policy processes are also dynamic processes. In other words, regardless of how a public policy is formulated, it reproduces itself with the results it produces. Attempts to solve social problems that arise as a result of a legal regulation with another legal regulation reveals this continuous structure of public policy. The duty of public administrators is to prevent policy processes from being run according to the mind of a single person or the interests of a person or a group of people. Because the basis of public policy is the public interest.

The entire cultural and historical accumulation of humanity has been the fundamental determinant of production and distribution relations. The development process, which accelerated with the transition of humanity to settled agriculture about 12 thousand years ago, has created societies with a high level of complexity and institutionalisation. Legal relations have replaced the personal relations that predominated in tribal societies. After this stage, the effort to elevate personal relations above legal relations in the social sphere becomes the litmus paper of how institutionalised societies are. If the institutionalisation of the society is really advanced, the system, whose boundaries are determined by law, will isolate and punish unlawful acts in a way to protect the interest of the whole society (public). Otherwise, it will be understood that the level of institutionalisation of society is low, and the determinism of personal relations will be high. 

Let us turn to the evaluation of the economic crisis in Turkey from a public policy perspective. This issue requires the acknowledgement of important mistakes made in several dimensions. In the first place, it is appropriate to mention the authoritarianisation of the administration. An authoritarian government has difficulty in accepting its constitutional limits. In Turkey, the authoritarianisation of the government has become a reality with the election of the President by popular vote. Once the constitutional limits are crossed, it is too late. Because the laws no longer have any meaning. The 2017 Referendum is an important turning point in this sense. The regime was changed (in the language of political science, an open coup d'état was carried out) with votes that were deemed valid in flagrant violation of the law, and the public remained silent. The greatest responsibility for this silence unquestionably lies with the opposition. Here, the opposition should have mobilised the social opposition. Because a law that is not implemented is a usurpation of sovereignty that belongs to the people. The acceleration of the deterioration in the economy has accelerated with the implementation of the new regime, which was changed by the "coup", since 2018. 

Another important dimension is the strategic mistakes made in the economic field. Under the pretext of privatisation, the country's strategic production facilities were sold off at auction, and the country went from being self-sufficient to a net importer in many areas. However, since the mercantilist period, also known as mercantilist capitalism, there has been a basic approach that wealth in a country is realised by producing more, selling more and buying less in return. In addition, irrational and unnecessary projects in "build-operate-transfer" investments led to irresponsible reduction of public resources while production decreased. Subsequently, in many areas of the public sector, while transactions were carried out in TL, debts to contractors were kept as foreign currency debts with interest, while the debts of the same contractors to the state were reorganised in TL and public losses were created. Another strategic mistake in the economic sphere was the authoritarian administration's purging of meritorious cadres who played a key role in the implementation of fiscal and monetary policy. However, the term "mistake" should not be taken to mean that these were not intentional. 

While meritorious cadres in the field of economy were purged, public resources were transferred to the wrong places and individuals through public banks. Tax debts of some companies were cancelled under the name of "tax amnesty". In this transaction, there is a flagrant excess of executive authority. In a system where sovereignty belongs to the people, the "right to budget", which is a dimension of the right to sovereignty, has been clearly violated. While it is understandable to write off the interest and pay the debt in instalments in order to increase the rate of payment of taxes, the cancellation of the tax debt is a usurpation of the sovereignty of the people. Unfortunately, the opposition could not or did not adequately explain this issue to the public. In addition, the wasteful expenditures of many public institutions and organisations have not been brought under control in any way, and no discomfort has been felt. The tax injustice, which I have insistently emphasised in my previous articles, cannot be explained with the term "mistake". It is a public policy choice that clearly reflects a class preference. 

In addition to the tax system, wage injustice also has the effect of increasing income inequality. Due to the electoral economy practices of the government, the wages received by the less educated and unqualified labour force, which the government considers as its voting base before the elections, have reached a level that exceeds the educated and qualified labour force. This sick structure not only reduces the value of education in the country, but also disrupts labour peace. The same problem is also in question for pensioners. The salaries of pensioners who are educated and have paid more contributions may be below the salaries of public worker pensioners. 

Another dimension of the mistakes affecting the economy is the mistakes made in education. Unlike the education systems of developed countries, which are orientated towards high value-added production, the education policy in Turkey was created overnight in a fight and forcibly passed through the legislative body. Education has gradually moved away from scientific principles and turned into a tool for the government to maintain its own existence. In clear violation of Articles 2 and 24 of the Constitution, the weight of religious themes in education has been increased, and even the Directorate of Religious Affairs has been positioned at the centre of education policies. The quality and effectiveness of higher education has been reduced by appointments to universities without merit. By opening universities in every province, a path completely distant from the education system that trains intermediate staff needed by the economy has been preferred. While paving the way for private schooling, the supervision of these schools could not be developed at the same pace and equality of opportunity in education was deeply wounded. 

The share of value-added products in exports has decreased. For example, while the highest added value in agricultural products in the world is provided in alcoholic beverages, Turkey has been left behind in this field. While the grapes produced by Italian farmers take their place in the world markets as wine and increase the welfare of the farmers, Turkish farmers dream of drying their grapes and making molasses, and then marketing it and becoming rich. When the farmer is asked about the reason for his preference, he claims that "producing wine is a sin". In industrial production, the lack of intermediate labour is a factor that prevents production from creating added value.

Another dimension of the deterioration in the economy is the mistakes arising from foreign policy. According to some sources, the number of asylum seekers, which is approaching 20 million, not only creates a burden that is more than the country's economy can bear, but also poses a survival problem for the country in the long term. No country has the chance to absorb a population of a quarter of its population, feed and shelter it without affecting its economy. 

As can be seen, economic policy is not limited to the improvement of fiscal and monetary policies. It is closely related to many fields such as education, employment, defence and production planning. It is not optimistic to think that deterioration in all these areas due to unscientific choices will not have any repercussions on the economy. It would only constitute another layer of ignorance. The fact that the Minister of Finance ignores all these dimensions and attributes the problem to the salaries of civil servants and pensioners suggests that the people of the country have not yet seen the worst in terms of living standards. If the decision makers of public policy see salaries as a public problem, they will naturally find solutions to this problem. If anyone wonders what the solution to be produced will be, they may prefer to buy a grave place before the increase. 

The country is clearly very badly governed. Voicing this loudly by everyone can be a first step towards a solution. But if even the opposition is incapable of explaining to the people the economic collapse created by all the problems together, if the people see that the bread they bought yesterday is shrinking today and watch their sovereignty being usurped, it seems that there is no choice but to watch what is happening like a theatre. If the country was well governed, the first result would be an increase in the welfare of the people. Since welfare is decreasing, talking about good governance here means that the economic situation is well deserved.