Accumulation through Borrowing: Capital and Social Transformation in the Neoliberal Era in Turkey

This study examines the effects of debt policies on capital accumulation and social transformation in the neoliberal period in Turkey. In the post-1980 period, neoliberal policies reinforced the dominance of financial capital while making debt mechanisms one of the main instruments of social control. Especially with the liberalization of capital movements in 1989, financial capital accumulation and debt strategies gained a new dimension. The politics of debt in Turkey has been shaped by the state’s transfer of resources to finance capital through domestic borrowing, the marketization of public services and the inclusion of households in the financial system. This study argues that the neoliberal debt regime is not only an economic strategy, but also plays a central role in the construction of social control and disciplinary mechanisms. While ensuring the sustainability of capital accumulation, this regime reorganized the power relations between social classes in favor of finance capital.