By Ruben Enikolopov
Recent events in Turkey attracted a lot of attention and raised a lot of question about the situation in the country. The more iteresting it is to read the paper by Daron Acemoglu and Murat Ucer that describes the evolution of economic and political institutions in Turkey in recent years. The paper argues that the economy was improving as a results of a series of growth-enhancing reforms following the financial crisis in 2001 , but then started moving in the opposite direction and the reason for that was a the corresponding reversal in the quality of political insitutions. Steady improvements in democratic institutions under the EU guidance reversed in the second half of 2000s. The ruling party consolidated power and removed many of the existing elements of the checks and balances system, resulting in a semi-authoritarian regime of Erdogan.
The full paper can be found here.
This analysis may be understanding what led to the attempted coup and what could be its consequences. It also demonstrates, how helpful can institutional analysis be in understanding current events.