Comparison of Turkish and Italian Economy with Respect to Economic Development: 1950-1960

Abstract

In this presentation, Turkey will be compared with Italy that has similar economic features in order to understand the causes of economic backwardness of Turkish economy and to draw a road map for economic development. This comparison includes the aftermath of the Second World War which is the period of accelerated economic development for countries achieved. The comparison of Turkey and Italy is crucial to find out backwardness of Turkey. Italy constitutes a good example because it showed great effort during the period of 1950 - 1960 to reduce the gap between developed countries. In this period, Turkish economy was in a very unstable condition that followed an unplanned development strategy, therefore there was no specific development agenda. This situation led to short - term increases in GDP at the beginning of the Democrat Party era, but later cause recession and as a result, long term economic targets were not achieved. In this study, the development policies and their impacts during the period of 1950 - 1960 in Turkey will be discussed. This period will be studied by separating into two different sub - periods. The first sub - period is the period of 1950 - 1953 when a rapid development process is experienced. The second one is the period of 1954 - 1960 when stagnation was experienced. Secondly, the development strategy and the economic policies put into practice by Italy after the Second World War and the effects of these policies on the economic development will be analyzed. Lastly, after making a comparative assessment of the two countries and putting out the pros and cons of Turkish economy, it is going to be made recommendations on economic development for Turkey.