Prelims

Network Policy Making within the Turkish Health Sector

Network Policy Making within the Turkish Health Sector: Becoming Collaborative

BY

Julinda Hoxha

Bilkent University, Turkey

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Emerald Publishing Limited

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First edition 2020

© Julinda Hoxha, 2020

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ISBN: 978-1-83867-095-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83867-094-8 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83867-096-2 (Epub)

We owe so much to those people, who sometimes through their help and motivation but even more so through their critique keep us moving forward in our knowledge seeking endeavors. Here, I can only mention but a few who had a direct influence on my work. First of all, I am deeply indebted to Professor Metin Heper for his unrelenting support and guidance throughout the whole process of book writing. I am also very grateful to Associate Professor Saime Özçürümez, who encouraged me to explore some of the most relevant and salient research puzzles within the field of comparative politics and convinced me of the need to do research on the topic of this book. I would also like to thank Professor Mete Yıldız, Associate Professor Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu, and Associate Professor Çağla Ökten, who have been very helpful in highlighting some of the main limitations as well as possibilities for improvement in my research through their constructive criticism. My special thanks go to Associate Professor Anne Mette Kjær for her readiness to help while preparing the book proposal. I am also very thankful to Eliza Gheorghe, Christina Hamer, Jermaine Ma, Amanda Hayes, and Petra Cafnik Uludağ for all their comments and suggestions throughout the process of book writing. Last but not least, I deeply thank my parents Ylli and Bukurije, my husband Saimir, and my children Emin and Sara. They are the motivation that makes me work harder each day. My biggest hope is to be their source of motivation one day in the future.

Little is known about network policy making in less advanced democracies. This is particularly the case in low- and middle-income countries. In the latter countries, little effort has been made to come up with systematic and cross-national studies of policy networks. In the process, the networks in such places have generally remained only as metaphors and “theoretical” perspectives.

Turkey is a middle-income country. Despite its “structural and cultural constrains” the country has made an effort to join the club of developed economies, basically through adopting the latter’s policy models. This has been the case particularly in the health sector, public health, health tourism, and the medical industry.

The present book examines the conditions under which said policy networks have emerged and thrived in Turkey by, not unexpectedly, drawing upon the health policy sector. While recent policy studies in Turkey have employed macro-level institutional analysis, this book has adopted a micro–meso level analysis of policy processes, focusing on the investigation of the (policy) networks within the health policy sub-areas.

As the present author has pointed out elsewhere (Heper, 1993), in Turkey while both societal and political elites have been expected to play an active role toward policy making in the name of “general interest,” studies on the Turkish case have shown that societal actors have traditionally had minimal or no impact on public policy making due to the impediments such as populism, clientelism, and opportunities (Heper & Yıldırım, 2011).

More recently, the networks in Turkey have turned out to be the effective channels of societal participation. Lately, the expert involvement in the said policy making processes and the tools that provide legitimacy to those processes, have been at the heart of public policy issues.

In her book, Julinda Hoxha has skillfully traced the past and present odyssey in question.

In essence, in solitude.

Prof. Dr. Metin Heper

Bilkent University