Scale as a Class Relationship and Process: The Case of Turkish Public Procurement Law

Fuat Ercan-Şebnem Oğuz

In this study we focus on two problematic aspects of the recent rescaling literature:
overgeneralization of abstractions rather than examination of concrete class forces; and
unidirectional understanding of the relationship between rescaling processes in the core and
periphery, where rescaling is seen as an outcome of the uneven development of capitalism based
on the tendency of overaccumulated capitals in the core to move to the periphery. We suggest an
alternative approach that conceives rescaling as a class relationship and process shaped by the
contradictory interaction between global capitals in the core and newly growing capitals in the
periphery. Through a study of the formation and transformation of the public procurement law in
Turkey (2001-2005), we illustrate that the rescaling of the Turkish public procurement market was
not only shaped by global capitals unidirectionally, but through their contradictory interaction with
the domestic capitals in Turkey. Although the initial law was formed under the hegemony of global
capitals, the AKP government then made many attempts to change the law in line with the demands
of domestic capital groups. In this process, scale was shaped by the unequal but mutual power
relationships between global and domestic capital groups.