An Exploratory Approach to Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) in Turkey

The current article focuses on Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) in Turkey. It adopts a retrospective approach focusing on economic, political, historical, and social contexts that shaped emergence of ISI, its performance, success, and failure. Understanding initial conditions in the country and its past development policy are perquisites for apprehending its future development policies. The Turkish Republic was established in 1923, and faced political instability, economic hardships, and social changes that affected its development path. The article covers provides an overview on the ISI strategy that Turkey had followed ISI since 1929, until the government announced the departure to an outer-oriented economy in 1970s. Easy and complex stages of ISI are discussed within the Turkish context