Acceso usuarios
John Scherpereel, Matthew C. Zierler
Turkey has long been a productive member of regional international organizations (IOs) like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Council of Europe. Theorists of socialization would predict that Turkey's activities within these organizations would encourage European Union (EU) members who belong to these IOs to support Turkey's application for EU membership. In reality, many EU members who share memberships with Turkey voice severe reservations about the prospects of Turkish EU membership. This article seeks to explain this puzzle. It demonstrates why socialization dynamics have failed to materialize in the Turkey-EU relationship and tests alternative explanations for 'failed socialization'. It finds empirical support for two such explanations. The first involves limitations of IOs' ability to discourage 'bad behavior' by member states. The second involves the increasing importance of mass publics and the dissolution of a 'permissive consensus' that has characterized past decisions about EU enlargement.
