The TTIP and the SCO in the Light of the Success Conditions for Economic Integration

The last global economic crisis has prompted new dynamics in the scope of economic integration: On the one hand, the Transatlantic economy witnessed the formation of the largest economic integration in the human history: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). On the other hand, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) recently adopted the economic vision for initiating an economic integration. Since both integration projects were recently launched, this chapter is intended to make a small contribution to the limited scientific resources available to policymakers, academicians, NGOs, etc. In this respect, this chapter first presents a set of political, economic, institutional, and natural conditions suggested in the principal economic integration literature for the success of a regional economic bloc. Second, it aims at evaluating the TTIP and the SCO in the light of these success conditions.

Perspectives on the United Kingdom's Withdrawal from the European Union

The European Community/Union has always been a controversial issue in the UK. At present, the probability of an in-or-out referendum makes it all the more divisive. Eurosceptics see a brighter future for their country outside the union both in political and economic terms. Pro-Europeans, on the other hand, maintain that British membership brings up benefits that outweigh the costs. Both sides have their arguments. The former seek success through social mobilizations and debates. The latter believe that the anti-EU stance may be costly in economic and political terms. Hence, the public must be convinced before the referendum – if it ever takes place.

Sino-Russian Strategic Partnership

The colossal economic transformations and political intrusions had been affecting brutally China and the Soviet Union in the final decades of the twentieth century. Currently, Russia is a gigantic power struggling to rebuild its economic base in an era of globalization. On the other hand, the economic rise of China has attracted a great deal of attention and labeled as a success story by the Western world. China and Russia have made a number of efforts to strengthen bilateral ties and improve cooperation on a number of economic/political/diplomatic fronts. Since the mid-1990s, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been an important feature of Eurasian politics and a vehicle to forge a new sort of cooperation between China and Russia. A number of issues related to geopolitics, security, the economy, and regional politics have been handled by the SCO member states.

The Impact of Trade Openness on Environmental Pollution

This chapter analyzes the impact of trade openness on environmental pollution in the newly industrialized countries that have focused on trade over the period 1971-2010 by using recently developed panel unit root, cointegration, and causality tests. The results indicate a cointegration relationship between the variables. The results also show that trade openness increases carbon dioxide emissions with the elasticity of 0.53 and there is a Granger causality running from trade openness to carbon dioxide emissions in the long run. These findings may provide some policy implications. Without taking into account impact of trade on pollutions, optimistic environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis would be invalid. Therefore, policymakers who decide on environment policies should pay attention to not only growth effects but also trade effects on pollutions. Future empirical analysis would expose the new evidences for governmental policies and environmental regulations to change these effects positively.

The European Union

In spite of the recent rise in Euroscepticism across most of Europe, owing to the recent Eurozone crisis and reflected by the European Parliament elections of May 2014 where far-right parties gained strength, there is little evidence to suggest that the enlargement of the EU will soon stop. The membership negotiations have started with Turkey, Iceland, Serbia, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In terms of both economic and physical size, Turkey is more influential than the rest of the candidate countries. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to provide some background information on the progress of each candidate and potential candidate country on the way to EU accession and compare them with the current EU28 members in order to emphasize the main similarities and the differences. Finally, a literature survey of the economic implications of a potential Turkish EU membership is also provided as a case study.

The Impact of Sovereign Debt Crisis on the EU Economy

The subprime mortgage crisis, which started in the United States in 2008, turned into a global crisis in a short time. Following the policies to reduce and mitigate the impacts of the global crisis, a sovereign debt crisis began that led to tremendous increases in government deficits and debt stock in the European Union region and made government financial systems unsustainable. This debt crisis, which started in the second half of 2009 in Greece, has resulted in a spillover effect for every EU member country. The ongoing crisis has rendered the future of Economic and Monetary Union uncertain. This chapter aims to determine the root causes of sovereign debt crisis in the EU and the economic and financial effects of and precautions for the crisis. This study also discusses the degradation of the EU's economic and political integration as a result of the sovereign debt crisis.

Understanding The Political Economy of Novel Metropolitan Governance Schemes of Turkish Local Management System

This chapter tackles with different dimensions the new brave world of Turkish metropolitan policymaking within the context of Law No: 6360, namely the administrative aspects, the public financial characteristics, along with the political dimensions. The problematization of the work, simply, follows how regionalism and globalization have come and interacted to render such a reform in Turkish local management units, under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (JDP-Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi). The effort shall also tackle the philosophy and the rationale of the new system in reference to regionalism and globalization with the need to underline the ramifications of the implementation of the new scheme in Turkey.

Global Crisis and Government Intervention

The authors look at the three major global crises; they see state intervention in causes and solutions. The causes of the crisis were deregulation. To resolve the crises, again regulation policies have been applied. Although the causes of the crises seem to have been regulation policies, in fact, the main problem was homo economicus. In conclusion, the authors see that when we analyze the reasons for the three big global crises and the ways to overcome crisis, the reasons are the unethical and irrational behavior of homo economicus. That is why homo economicus must be constrained and obey constitutional financial and monetary rules.

An Evaluation of Oral and Dental Health Services in Turkey and in the Member States of the EU in Terms of Economy

Dental health expenditures are a big part of general health expenditures. In Turkey, oral health services are provided by both private practitioners and government sections. In 2012, approximately 7 million fillings were made by government clinics. According to Turkish Dental Association data, in the same year, the number of fillings that Turkish citizens needed was 247 million. Even if the entire budget of the Health Ministry of Turkey were spent for these fillings, it is impossible to handle this demand. In 2012, in the European Union with 24 member countries, dental health spending was close to 74 billion Euro. Because of this financial burden, Turkey and the other countries are trying to find cost-effective methods to minimize dental health spending. This chapter emphasizes dental health conditions of both Turkey and European Union, firstly, and then successful and cost-effective strategies are discussed.

EU Health Policy

Although not openly identified in treaties until the Maastricht Treaty, health has always been a crucial area for the European Union (EU), since freedoms provided and regulations brought by common market also dealt with several sections of the health sector. All concerning parts of health sector have to be subject to both freedoms and regulations of single market system. Despite the value given to health and related issues, a separate or supranational policy dealing with health issues has not been formed by the EU. The member states keep their privilege on health policies. However, the EU does not stay completely aside of health issues; on the contrary, the EU got involved in certain areas of health, especially the ones which have cross-border implications. In this chapter, the matter of to what extent the EU got involved in health issues is researched and the question of if the EU has a concrete health policy is analyzed.