EU Democracy Promotion and Governmentality: Turkey and Beyond

189 Pages·2019·3.353 MB·English

by  Hanna L. Muehlenhoff

EU Democracy Promotion
and Governmentality
This book draws on a Foucauldian understanding of governmentality to
explore how EU civil society funding policies depoliticise civil society orga-
nisations. It questions whether international civil society funding always
depoliticises civil society organisations, as the literature on governmentality
and international civil society policies argues.
The author examines how the liberal and neo-liberal rationalities of EU
funding have both politicising and depoliticising effects on the human rights
organisations funded, and demonstrates that whether the effects help or pre-
vent the politicisation of human rights depends on how legitimate or con-
tested the issue is domestically and how the civil society organisations act in
this political context. These themes are explored through an in-depth analysis
of the case of Turkey and EU funding of organisations working in the fields
of women’s, LGBTand Kurdish rights.
Unpacking liberal and neo-liberal governmentality in EU democracy pro-
motion and civil society funding, this insightful contribution to the literature
will be ofinterest to scholars of International Relations, Middle East Studies,
European Studies and democracy promotion.
Hanna L. Muehlenhoff is a lecturer at the Department of European Studies,
University of Amsterdam (UvA). Her research is on the EU’s human rights
promotion, gender and security policies, focusing on Turkey. She recently
published in Politics and the International Feminist Journal of Politics.
Interventions
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‘As Michel Foucault has famously stated, “knowledge is not made for
understanding; it is made for cutting” In this spirit The Edkins - Vaughan-
Williams Interventions series solicits cutting edge, critical works that chal-
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Michael J. Shapiro, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA
Edited by Jenny Edkins, Aberystwyth University and Nick Vaughan-Wil-
liams, University of Warwick
Migrant Resistance in Contemporary Europe
Maurice Stierl
EU Democracy Promotion and Governmentality
Turkey and Beyond
Hanna L. Muehlenhoff
Autonomy of Migration?
Appropriating Mobility within Biometric Border Regimes
Stephan Scheel
The Anarchist Imagination
Anarchism Encounters the Humanities and Social Sciences
Carly Levy and Saul Newman
EU Democracy Promotion
and Governmentality
Turkey and Beyond
ff
Hanna L. Muehlenho
Firstpublished2019
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To my parents Elisabeth and Reimund, my godparents Heinrich
Jürgenbehring and Barbara Lorenzkowski, and Carl J. Mauzy.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of tables viii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations xii
1 Introduction: On EU democracy promotion, the question of
depoliticisation, and the case of Turkey 1
2 (De)politicisation, (neo-)liberal governmentality, and hegemonic
struggles 15
3 The (neo-)liberal governmentality of EU civil society programs 45
4 The (de)politicisation of women’s rights organisations in a
complex context 70
5 (De)politicising LGBTrights organisations and the effects of
visibility 91
6 The (de)politicisation of the securitised Kurdish rights issue 107
7 Conclusions 131
Bibliography 143
Index 168
Tables
2.1 Types of governmentality in the EU 31
2.2 Different representations of civil society in liberal and neo-liberal
governmentality 32
2.3 Neo-liberal rationalities and depoliticising effects 36
Preface
Ibeganthisprojectinahistoricalandpoliticalcontextthatwashopefulregarding
Turkey’s future in the European Union as a result ofits democratisation process
and the increasing pluralisation of Turkish society. Even so, ever since I started
studying Turkey, classmates, colleagues, family and friends have asked me “Why
Turkey”? They wonderedwhat this had to do with me and how I was going to
studyTurkeywithoutspeakingTurkish.Unsurprisingly,learningTurkishhasbeen
alongandchallengingpath,butIfounditobviouswhatTurkeyhadtodowithme.
IwasveryidealisticabouttheEU’senlargementandIwantedtostudytheEU’s
accessionpolicies.Inmyview,TurkeyhadtobecomeanEUmembersinceithad
such a long historyof cooperation with the EU andwould contribute to aplur-
alistic union. But in Germany, where I grew up and had studied, conservative
politiciansandsectionsofthepublicopposedTurkey’smembershipcandidacyon
thebaseofpopulistandxenophobicarguments.Thisapparentlyhadtodowiththe
factthatmorethanonemillionpeoplewithaTurkishmigrationbackgroundand
more than three million Muslims live in Germany. The German debate revealed
how little Germans knew about Turkey and how little they knew their German‐
Turkish neighbours. As in other European countries, Turkey’s membership was
also opposed on the grounds that Turkey supposedly did not belong to Europe,
eithergeographicallyorreligiously.Iwantedtocounterthexenophobicandexclu-
sionarysentimentsofthisdebateandgettoknowTurkeybettermyself.Iprobably
wouldnothavepickedupthetopicifIhadnotmetpeoplesupportingmyinterest,
suchasMechtildRothe,formermemberandvice‐presidentoftheEuropeanPar-
liament,whowasengagedinthesolutionoftheCyprusconflict.Iwasaninternat
.
the Economic Development Foundation (IKV), which has strongly supported
Turkey’s EU accession, during my first longer stay in Turkey in 2009. There, I
started to wonder how the EU supported civil society in Turkey. This is why I
decided to study what kind of effects the EU’s civil society funding has on civil
societyorganisations(CSOs)inTurkey.Duringmyresearch,Ihavelearnedalot
aboutTurkey’sdiversecivilsociety,andbeinginTurkeyrightaftertheGezipro-
testswas inspiring and exciting. Although I take a critical look at what Turkey’s
human rights organisations do, I have great respect for what they are trying to
accomplish.Moreover,IamawarethatmyviewevenontheCSOsthatIstudied
isstilllimitedandalwaysthatofanoutsider.IamstillinfavourofTurkey’sEU