Dynamics of Government’s Role in Poverty Eradication in Turkey: A Study of the Literature

Until a few decades ago poverty eradication did not feature prominently in the public policy making and discourse of contemporary Turkey. Successive governments engaged and responded marginally to issues of poverty. However, after the post-1980s reorientation of the development pattern of the nation, from centralised protectionist paradigm to free markets systems, poverty eradication gradually started to find space in national public policy agenda, rapidly rising into one of the key national policy issues. Political authority readily acknowledged poverty as a major problem and assumed responsibility for its eradication. Based on desktop review of literature, this article explores the shift in poverty eradication policy agenda of Turkey from a quiescent and neglected phenomenon to an important public policy issue. The article argues that external induced reforms (adoption and implementation of neoliberal policies and measures, reforms to achieve good governance) and internal social structural transformation (erosion in traditional welfare regime) account for the government’s increased role in issues of poverty eradication in Turkey