M.A. Theses

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Browsing M.A. Theses by Subject "Agriculture and state -- Turkey."

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    Agricultural growth in the 1930s in Turkey
    (Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Atatürk's Principles and the History of Turkish Renovation, 1999., 1999.) Akarçay, Ayça.; Pamuk, Şevket, 1950- .
    Assessment of the economic development of the 1930s in Turkey have mainly emphasized industrial development, which is attributed to state-led policies (etatism). However, developments in agricultural sector were also important. Agricultural production, especially cereal production, increased despite the deflationary context. As such, it constituted another factor behind the industrial growth. Existing literature on the agricultural sector in Turkey in 190s either emphasizes state policies, which are said to have favoured small peasantry; or the impoverishment and differentiation of the peasantry, attributing growth to external demand; or to population recovery; or to favourable weather conditions. It appears that exports could not have been a source of growth. State intervention -price support programmes in wheat production, wheat purchases, credits to the agricultural sector or more specifically to cereal producers. Peasantry differentiation does not seem to have occurred on a major scale, meaning that small peasantry prevailed as under Ottoman rule; otherwise, the production increase in cereals could not be explained. The population increase was indeed an important factor; however, as Per capita production also increased it was certainly not the only factor behind the growth as such. There is no evidence that the second half of the 1930s was a particularly favourable period in terms of rainfall. If the explanations given in the literature do not explain the growth or are insufficient, other factors such as the nature of the peasantry and the dynamics of that strata seem to have been the main factors behind the growth.
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    Farmer support regime and political economy of agricultural reform: transformation of Turkish agricultural policy in the post-2000 era
    (Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History, 2012., 2012.) Koçak, Ayşe.; Pamuk, Şevket, 1950- .
    This thesis analyzes the changing dynamics in post-2000 agricultural policy making in Turkey in terms of populist electoral tradition in relation to the international and domestic policy dynamics. The focus of the study is early 2000s when the reform moves gained a renewed pace as a result of the international pressures’ winning leverage over the incumbent governments of the era following the 2001 economic crisis. The thesis takes a snapshot of the trajectories in agricultural policy making and reform efforts in the sector and reveals the changing nature of governmental policy attitude towards agriculture in the early 2000s While analyzing the evolution of the agricultural support regime and policy making in Turkey of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government era, starting from 2002 until 2011, the international and domestic roots of the reform move and the erratic governmental policy and discourse changes towards the agricultural sector are traced. The main hypothesis of the thesis is that the early years of the AKP rule do not exemplify a deviation from populist policy tradition in Turkish agriculture but was more of an “obligated” policy transfer to save the day. The initial reason for AKP’s seemingly leading away from populist-corporatist electoral tradition in agriculture was mainly because of the AKP’s weak capacity in handling electoral promises and populist legacy while trying to adhere to its promises to international pressure groups and lack of an innovative and comprehensive policy alternative rivalling the reform designs of the World Bank and IMF. However, once it gained more political power with the help of a more stable economic and political environment and ensured some space to wriggle out of IMF constraints, the initial determination for reform on part of the AKP government did not last long and agricultural policy making started to move back again on the populist-corporatist electoral track with the introduction of agricultural policies deviating from the IMF and the WTO principles and original aims of the WB backed ARIP. In the end, the populist tradition in agriculture survived a new wave of reform pressure striking a happy medium with the old and new policies for the sake of the new giving way to a hybrid and disorienting agricultural regime with the future prospects of hatching into new and more radical policy reforms.
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    Struggling for survival in the village after the disturbance of tobaccoland: Tracing new rurality behind the footprints of tobacco farmers
    (Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History, 2010., 2010.) Kavak, Sinem.; Pamuk, Şevket, 1950- .
    This thesis traces the impacts of neoliberalization of tobacco production and market on the rural households in tobacco producing villages in addition to the attempts of survival and patterns of restructuring of tobacco livelihoods. In search for answers, a field research was performed in the villages of Adıyaman, Soma (Manisa) and Fethiye (Mugla) which included in-dept interviews with the producers, local officials and representatives of subcontracting firms. Moreover, the qualitative data were combined with macro statistics on demography, population, production and socioeconomic indicators. The findings are placed within the broader historical and theoretical framework in order to present a grounded, coherent picture of the phenomenon under scrutiny. The thesis reveals two major patterns. Primarily, agricultural production does not yield sufficient income for the survival and recreation of the peasant household in arid and semi-arid tobacco villages which necessitates integration of off-farm income sources to the household budget. The result is either permanent migration- which is also troublesome for the peasants- or income diversification through pluriactivity, off-farm diversification, seasonal migration, and circular migration. Thus a constant movement of peasants between rural and urban areas takes place indicating a new type of rurality by undermining the conceptual relevance of dualistic terms such as “rural” and “urban”, “worker” and peasant” Secondly the thesis reveals that inequality and poverty increase in the rural areas due to diversified diversification sites of the peasants. In villages with job opportunities in the near surroundings preservation and recreation of rural life is more likely than in the villages with less income opportunities in the near surroundings. Moreover, worse-off farmers diversify mostly in unfavorable and informal markets whereas better-off farmers diversify in better markets with opportunities to move other sectors. This phenomenon leads to the disruption of relatively egalitarian social structure in rural Turkey. In addition, the thesis elaborates on indebtedness, dispossession and deprivation of the poor peasantry. Furthermore, the thesis argues that tobacco production will be transferred to poorer households with less income diversification opportunities and with exploitable labor reserve that is because high vulnerability levels of such households situate them to a weak position before profit seeking subcontracting firms and transnational tobacco industry enabling the firms dictate their terms along their interests over the weak peasantry with no alternative.