Abstract

The Turkish application for membership challenges the European Union to evaluate democratic governance in practice. This paper sets out the EU's Copenhagen criteria for admission: the political system should maintain democratic institutions, the rule of law, respect for human and minority rights, a functioning market economy, and an effective public administration. It combines the 2007 Turkish Election Survey with New Europe Barometer data to show how citizens evaluate their system of governance. The ratings that Turks give their political system are compared with those given in 10 new EU member states that the EU decided were "good enough" to become members since 2004. Because of distinctive features of Turkish society, additional criteria are relevant too, such as support for military rule or Islamic Shari'a law. Turks rate their system of government better than the threshold standard set by the lowest-placed government that the EU has already admitted. However, there remain unresolved issues within Turkey, between the EU and the Turkish government, and among EU states making Turkish admission problematic.