Good Essay On A Summary On The EU Harmonization Reforms, Democratization And A New Modality Of

The European Union (EU) organization has altered the formal and informal influence of Turkish military forces among civil groups. In this study, Narli (2009) tries to determine how the formal and informal strategy of the military affects the harmonization reforms for democratic governance thereby improving military and civil relations as part of the EU requisites for partnership. Using Rebecca L. Schiffs’ concordance theory, Narli (2009) examines the dynamics prevailing among Turkish military forces, the civil group and the society prior to and after the onset of the EU harmonization process. With respect to the formal influence of the military, the study aims to determine the extent of Turkey’s effort to meet the EU requirements for partnership in terms of addressing cultural issues, policies drafted in relation to security and delineation of roles of the military in politics and how such influences public opinion. In the informal level of influence, much attention is given in the changes in relation to security and political culture and how these types of culture affects the relationship of the lay people and the military. The cultural aspects scrutinizes how the mindset of the citizens is altered vis-à-vis the influence of the military in the sphere of politics and the recent voices in the media that calls for greater civilian rights (i.e. “democratic control of forces”).
It was hypothesized that: (1) there is an “imperfect concordance” and a very intricate interplay that exists among the military, civilian political decision-making body and the society; and (2) that such shifts in the military influence has been considered at two level—the formal and informal influence. The formal influence is defined under the constructs exercising such influence by way of institutional and legal means such as press statements and public speeches which affect both political and security culture of a citizen.
The focus of the study includes: (1) the escalation of civilian control and resulting shifts in the policies regarding accountability; (2) construction of transparency in the defense sector; (3) misunderstandings and lapses within the parliament; and (4) changes in the culture of politics as influenced by the underlying civil-military issues. The extent of the goals of EU harmonization that has been attained—building a democratic civil military relation aligned with the standards of the European Union.
Analysis revealed that there is an increased democratic control and decreased formal influence of the armed forces. Turkish security culture is defined by the government’s perception that the country has been surrounded by hostile states that dislikes Turkey. Thus, challenging the existing security policy of the state can be very difficult. Before the EU harmonization, both security and political culture of the country allowed the military to exercise formal influences on civilians and “national security.” The military has a high degree of autonomy such that defense policies are formulated in the absence of civilian inputs. The defense budgeting and procurement was waived of their accountabilities because of inadequate auditing and oversight in the parliament. However, the balance of power between the civil-military relations has changed under the EU harmonization reforms. Amendments in Article 118 reform the policies involving both institutional and political culture as well as the mindset of the citizens in terms of socialization and perceptions of officers since the major institutional ability of the military to affect parliamentary decisions has been stripped.
The parliament input at ex-ante stage of defense budgeting was limited before the EU harmonization reforms. Parliamentarians were content with the role of setting the organizational outline of the armed forces which is to provide appropriations to fund their operations and to re-affirm policies and practices set from the General Staff and Ministry of National Defense. But this does not mean that there was zero parliamentary input. Oversights and issues on transparency have been extended to the debate of budget bills. Based on the minutes of the parliament committee and hearing, there has been an increase in the interest in the issue of wider parliament lapses in the defense sector—an increasing enthusiasm on the lapses in defense budgeting. Parliamentarians have become increasingly more vocal during debates. But during expenditures and procurement during the pre-EU harmonization the military has almost a complete control. During the harmonization period, transparency building in defense budgeting as per EU protocol agreement has been successful but there is still insufficiency in terms of auditing and domestic transparency with respect to publishing defense expenses. This hinders auditors to track the exact figures allocated for defense and see possible imbalances in government spending.
Lapses of the parliament in relation to military-civil relationship have shown some improvements since 2001 as the institutional reforms and the awareness of parliamentary oversight among citizens increased. Proceedings of the TBMM and other minutes suggested a deviation between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the People’s Republican Party (CHP). In some respect, voices questioning and demanding more parliamentary input were seldom heard. Some parliamentarians do not see the lack of parliamentary input and oversight in the formation of National Security Concept as a problem. Despite such problems in the implementation, the EU harmonization reforms improved parliamentary oversight and were able to challenge the orthodox security culture which has been supported by the masses. Voices calling for further alignment emerged from different civic organizations as the media continues to relate the issues of oversight of the defense sector and transparency in public spending.
Fluctuations in the informal military influence (via public statements of the generals) were noted. That is the military started to exercise prudence in making public speeches during the EU harmonization period. Under the harmonization reform process the changes in the capacity of the military to exercise political influence and the changes in the civil-military political and security culture has created disagreements in the civil-military relations particularly in “the new political decision-making process.” The emerging concordance however lies in the democratic control for political stability.