The Restructuring of Public Debtfare Institutions in Turkey and Crisis Dynamics: TOKİ and KYK
AMME IDARESI DERGISI, vol.59, no.2, pp.339-370, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Volume: 59 Issue: 2
- Publication Date: 2026
- Journal Name: AMME IDARESI DERGISI
- Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Central & Eastern European Academic Source (CEEAS), Business Source Ultimate (EBSCO)
- Page Numbers: pp.339-370
- Anadolu University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
The literature has examined only to a limited extent the central role of the post-2000 restructuring of public debt-welfare institutions in Turkey in the financial inclusion of low-income households and young people, as well as its implications for state-society relations.This article examines how credit-based social policy design, through the cases of TOK & Idot; and KYK, establishes an asymmetric relationship between the creditor state and debtor citizens by transferring costs, responsibilities, and risks and analyzes the structural contradictions generated by this process. In this context, TOK & Idot; and KYK operate as central institutions in long-term debt relations that bind households'future incomes, enabled by their relative budgetary autonomy, partial insulation from financial markets, and broad administrative discretion. A key finding of the study is that this debtfare regime, which appeared sustainable under relative macroeconomic stability, has become increasingly fragile since 2018. Inflation-indexed repayment mechanisms have shifted the costs of currency and price shocks from the public sphere to households, turning debtors into de facto risk bearers To examine how the debtfare regime is experienced by debtor citizens under conditions of crisis, the study conducts a thematic analysis of 3,082 complaints related to TOK & Idot; and KYK published on the & Scedil;ikayetvar platform between 2022 and 2025 The analysis reveals, through the everyday experiences of debtor citizens, that debt has ceased to function as a mechanism supporting social reproduction and has instead become a governing technique that renders basic needs such as housing and education conditional and precarious. In doing so, the article reveals the structural limits of the debtfarism under crisis conditions and demonstrates that the credit-based social policy reinforces new forms of inequality and deepens social tensions under conditions of high inflation and jobless growth.