The European Union as a ‘heuristic device’: Ritualized Europeanization in Turkey

Following the World Polity School of sociological institutionalism, this article argues that ‘many Europes’ operating in different (strategic, normative and cognitive) realms affects the EU’s projection of its authority abroad, and paves the way for the trifurcation of the Europeanization processes that influence society and politics in candidate countries like Turkey. The Turkish case is critical in terms of demonstrating a decoupling between the EU-led reform process and Turkey’s EU membership bids. By studying attitudinal variation in two reform areas where the status quo proves difficult to change, the study emphasizes the ritualized character of domestic compliance with EU membership conditionality and the role of the EU as a ‘heuristic device’ to help unpack some of the complexity of the global context and European multiplicity.