Social and Economic Rights: Promises and Limits

Abstract

Capitalism based itself on the myth of social rights historically. The only time this myth substantially realized in the history of capitalism was "the golden age" (1945-1975). Coupling with the oil crisis of the mid 1970s, there have been significant cuts in the social rights of people both in the center and periphery countries, this process has gained pace in the neoliberal era. During this period, social policies reduced to "clemency" of upper classes and were left to the NGOs in general. Turkey is one of the most successful countries in destroying social rights amongst the OECD countries. This paper aims to investigate the current situation of social rights in Turkey while comparing the data with the OECD countries.