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TURKISH ECONOMY ON THE THRESHOLD OFTHE 21st CENTURY: A CRITICAL REVIEW OFSOME RECENT INTERNATIONALAPPRAISALSProf. Dr. Dr. h.c. Şefik Alp BAHADIR*INTRODUCTIONIn these days, as we approach the next millennium, the Republic ofTürkiye -as it is now officially known- celebrates its 75th anniversaryand, throughout the country, festivities are taking place to mark the event.This is an appropriate occasion to take stock of the achievements of thisvery young state. This paper is an attempt to undertake such stocktakingin the field of political economy and derives two main results. First, inthe 20th century when most countries got "stuck" in a path of insufficientgrowth and economic backvvardness, Turkey has revealed a high degreeof adaptive effıciency vvith regard to changing global economic trendsand external shocks, and this promises to be the most outstanding developmentalasset of the country in the next millenium. Second, this high degreeof adaptive effıciency of the Turkish economy is the outcome of thecultural renevval and the nevv belief system of the Turkish society vvhichoriginate in Atatürk's cultural reforms. The first section of the papergauges the economic signifıcance of culture by exploring the concepts ofpath dependence and adaptive effıciency. The second section touches onfour episodes of successful economic policy changes in the past vvhichdisplay the adaptive effıciency of the economic system in Turkey. Thepaper concludes vvith some general observation on the Turkish economyon the threshold of the 2İst century.Professor Bahadır is holder of the Chair for Contemporary Middle Eastern Researchat the Institute of Economics of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. At thepresent, he is also executive director of the Interdisciplinary Central Institute ofRegional Research of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; Director of the GraduateSchool of Interdisciplinary Middle East Studies of the Universities of Bambergand Erlangen-Nuremberg; and Predean of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Universityof Erlangen-Nuremberg.761