Introduction

This chapter introduces the topic of the EU’s democracy promotion and specifically of the EU’s civil society funding in Turkey. It introduces the main question of this book: How has EU civil society funding depoliticised civil society organisations in Turkey between 2002 and 2013? The author outlines the reasons behind the EU’s funding of civil society organisations in non-EU countries and discusses the widespread notion that civil society is a force for good. However, the author finds that much of the literature has viewed the EU’s policy as ineffective. More specifically, she is interested in the critical argument of the governmentality literature that assumes that the EU’s policies transfer neo-liberal rationalities to civil society organisations and argues that this depoliticises them. The author finds this claim simplistic and Eurocentric and intends to challenge it in two ways. First, she argues that the EU’s civil society funding is based on neo-liberal and liberal rationalities. Second, she suggests that the depoliticising effects depend on the discursive context in which they intervene. The book proposes that the EU’s civil society funding had depoliticising and politicising effects on civil society organisations in Turkey because of their agency, their discursive struggles and the liberal rationalities of the EU programs.