Financial Liberalization and Financial Crises in Turkey

The Turkish crises in the post-1990 period -1994, §2000, 2001- which have hitherto received §comparatively little international attention, are §ideal to show the peculiarities of each crisis and §individual country experiences and provide a §critical approach to the existing crisis literature. §The primary objective of this book is to §build on the valuable existing literature to §reassess the Turkish crises in the post-1990 period §with a different perspective and complements §previous studies by providing the missing links. §Going beyond the hitherto short-term focus, it §argues that their causes cannot simply be associated §with events just before their emergence; instead §they are the result of a cumulative process of §factors building up over many years. It offers a §more balanced treatment by taking into consideration §the domestic policy failures of a by and large §reactive state as well as the lax attitude of §international financial institutions.It analyzes the §reasons behind the lack of learning on the part of §both domestic and international decision makers. The §book argues that there were grave mistakes made in §the timing and sequencing of neoliberal reforms.