Opening Pandora’s box: social security reform in Turkey in the time of the AKP

This article evaluates social security reform in Turkey under the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). It discusses recent developments, describes the current scheme and points out the Islamist guise dominant in Turkish policy and in the discoveries of policy-makers. The article claims that Turkey is currently on the road to adopting policy changes that are very strongly influenced by the neo-liberal social security model being advanced by the international institutions of world capitalism. The plan to ‘neo-liberalise’ the nation's social security system will widen the chasm between rich and poor by way of promoting the interest of the capitalist class over the interest of the public as a whole, and will not provide acceptable solutions to many vulnerable categories of the population. The authors argue that the existing reform will end with welfare losses for the majority of the population. The reform is expected to expose individuals more than ever to the risk of fluctuations in the peripheral capitalist economy of Turkey.