Respect for human rights and the rise of democratic policing in Turkey: Adoption and diffusion of the European Union acquis in the Turkish National Police.

This study is an exploration of the European Union acquis adoption in the Turkish National Police. The research employed the Diffusion of Innovations, Democratic Policing, and historical background check theoretical frameworks to study the decision-making of the TNP regarding reforms after 2003 as a qualitative case study which triangulated the methodology with less-dominant survey and several other analyzing methods. The data were collected from several sources including semi-structured interviews, archival records, documentary evidences and the European Commission Regular Reports on Turkey. The research interest was about the decision mechanisms of the TNP towards reforms and the rise of democratic policing in Turkey. During the study, internationally recognized human rights standards were given attention. As the data suggested, the police forces are shaped according to their ruling governments and societies. It is impossible to find a totally democratic police in a violent society and a totally violent police in a democratic society. The study findings suggested that reforming police agencies should not be a significant problem for determined governments. Human rights violations should not be directly related with the police in any country. The data suggested that democratic policing applications find common application when the democracy gets powerful and police brutality increases when authoritarian governments stays in power. Democratic policing on the other hand is an excellent tool to improve notion of democracy and to provide legitimacy to governments. However, democratic policing is not a tool to bring the democracy, but a support mechanism for it.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2007

Author dc:creator

• Lofca, Izzet

Contributors dc:contributor

• O'Connor, Brian Clark
• Hastings, Samantha Kelly
• Chilton, Bradley S.
• Sahliyeh, Emile

• European Union acquis
• Turkish National Police
• reform
• diffusion of innovation
• democratic policing
• human rights
• Police -- Turkey.
• Democratization -- Turkey.
• Human rights -- Turkey.
• Police-community relations -- Turkey.
• European Union -- Turkey.
• Turkey -- Politics and government -- 1980-

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Lofca, Izzet
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 191955179
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3945/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc3945

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc3945