ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the Europeanization of gender equality norms and the Kurdish issue in Turkey — in other words whether and to what extent Turkey has made progress in these issues responding to EU conditionality that comes with the country's aim of becoming a member to the EU. Many other chapters in this volume have discussed the models of Europeanization in detail (see, in particular, Chapter 10 by Baudner; Chapter 1 by Kyris; Chapter 11 by Kubicek). Thus, this chapter will not repeat what has already been said. It suffices to remind here that the external incentives model that reflects rational choice institutionalism has become the most popular among different models of Europeanization. The model expects a vigorous democratic reform process in EU candidate countries responding to EU conditionality. This is subject to credible EU commitment to the candidates’ future EU membership and low adoption costs, particularly weak veto players, so that the reform processes will not be blocked (Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier 2004: 670–671). Despite its popularity among the Europeanization studies, the model is criticized for its static perception of the reform process in which little attention is paid to domestic political forces as alternative sources of explanation (Sasse 2009: 19).
