Europeanization of Political Elite Discourses in Turkey: A Content Analysis of Parliamentary Debates 1994-2002

This article assesses the relative importance of EU-level factors in the Europeanization of political elite discourses on the Copenhagen political criteria by evaluating alternative explanations of national contextual, party-level, and intraparty-level factors. The article argues that the Helsinki summit decision in December 1999 to recognize Turkey as a candidate helped place the issues of democracy, human rights, and rule of law in the discourses of Turkish political elites more decisively. However, it also argues that national context, party-level, and intraparty-level factors played a critical role providing a favorable and receptive environment for the EU's political criteria for membership to become a central concern for political elites in Turkey by creating an elite consensus on democratization in the months preceding the Helsinki summit.