The European Union Process and Transformation in Regional Policies: An Analysis in the Context of Turkey

Turkey has experienced a drastic change in its regional policy with the accession process to the European Union. This change can be observed both in the definition of regions and in the emergence of development agencies as institutional structures at the regional level. This is known as the policy transfer process, by which the region becomes a global actor and regional policy is determined by regional actors. In this context, to analyze this transformation process, a questionnaire was applied to the members of the development committees of regional development agencies which included actors from different sectors. This survey aimed to measure the perceptions of participants about the transformation in regional policies, the policy transfer process and commitment to previous structures.