Peasants against MNCs and the State: The Bergama Case

What is it about?

In this article, we argue that the emergent literature that integrates the neo-institutional and social movement theories for a better understanding of institutional change offers a partial picture concerning the roles of the state and society in institutional wars due to its preoccupation with the liberal polities prevalent in the Anglo-Saxon countries. We suggest that the macro-institutional perspective that recognizes the infl uences of varied polities should be introduced to this emergent literature, if it is to provide a full picture. Incorporating the macro-institutional insights into the integrative approach, we examine a struggle between a group of protesters, a multinational gold-mining company, and governmental actors regarding an environmental issue in Bergama, Turkey, where a statist polity mediates worldwide currents towards the neo-liberal order. The findings indicate that the Turkish state repressed the mobilizations against the neo-liberal construction of the mining fi eld, and reinforced the existing neo-liberal logic in the mining fi eld through introducing a new regulatory framework. On the basis of the fi ndings, we suggest that both the trajectory and consequences of institutional wars are infl uenced by the kind of polity in which they take place.

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