This well-written and insightful book investigates the “formation and sustainability of state-business alliances” in the context of the economic and political transformations that have affected the business environment in Mexico and Turkey in the post-1980 period. Following an approach that draws on insights from institutionalist analysis, the author argues that “coordination-inducing institutions” constitute one of the main determinants of economic development in emerging markets, since these institutions “help gather and disperse information on policies, regulations, strategies, and investment plans, and distribute responsibilities between state and business actors, thus serving to diminish transaction costs” (p. 24). According to the author, the coordination mechanisms of state-business interactions are shaped by the level of “cohesiveness” and “fragmentation” among both state and business actors.

The book draws on original research from archives, government documents, surveys of newspapers and periodicals, and in-depth interviews in both Turkey and Mexico. In addition to the introduction, the book is organized into nine chapters. In the introduction and first chapter, Özel critically engages with and attempts to contribute to the research on government-business interactions. After providing an extensive discussion of the existing literature, the author emphasizes the role of “cohesiveness” in establishing an effective coordination mechanism between the state and business. Accordingly, “where business and state actors are more cohesive, their respective capacities will be enhanced, increasing the likelihood of institution building” (p. 19). By contrast, fragmentation in both the state and the business community “diminishes the actors’ capacity to generate long-term goals and implement them” (p. 22). The author also points out the role of political factors in determining the direction of transformations: these have led to the reconfiguration of alliances as well as to rivalries and conflicts in the forms of interaction between the state and the business community. Thus, she introduces a dynamic perspective to the existing literature, which tends to evaluate state-business interactions as relatively fixed and stable.

Chapters 2 to 7 provide a comprehensive analysis of the changing patterns and mechanisms of state-business relations in post-1980 Mexico and Turkey. According to the author in Chapter 3, the state and the business sector in Turkey became increasingly fragmented in the first stage of market transition (1980–2000). In this context, the institutional frame of business interest representation, which was dominated by officially recognized corporatist chambers with their compulsory member structure, was challenged by voluntary business associations. The business community in Turkey underwent important transformations in the 1990s, when new forms of cleavages emerged as a result of newly rising devout businesspeople (pp. 63–69). Competition and power struggles between state agencies also increased fragmentation in the bureaucracy, which rendered it difficult to provide coordination mechanisms between business and the state (pp. 70–75).

Although, as outlined in Chapter 2, Mexico and Turkey adopted similar market-driven economic policies, Chapter 4 goes on to discuss how state-business relations developed a different form in Mexico during the same period (1982–1994). Contrary to Turkey’s experience, the marketization and liberalization of Mexico’s economy was accompanied by an increase in cohesiveness within the state and the business community. In this context, the author discusses historical legacies—the early formation of peak business associations—and business’s perception of threat in the 1980s due to close relations between the state and labor organizations, debt crisis, the nationalization of banks, and the rise of a leftist movement, all of which are presented as primary causes of the cohesiveness within the business sector in Mexico. Unlike its Turkish counterpart, the bureaucracy in Mexico became less fragmented, as the neoliberal technocratic elites constructed their hegemony over key institutions, such as the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance (pp. 89–92).

According to Özel in Chapter 5, the level of cohesiveness and fragmentation changed during the second stage of market transition in both Mexico (1995–2012) and Turkey (2001–2012). Political developments of the 2000s brought about important changes in the Turkish business environment. New patterns in government-business relations have emerged under the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), which came to power in 2002 after the economic crisis of 2001 and the institutional reforms carried out by the previous coalition government, with firm support from the IMF and the World Bank. Özel argues that this political transformation “has given rise to two simultaneous and seemingly contradictory trends: increasing fragmentation on the one hand, and unprecedented cohesion on the other” (p. 140). During the AKP rule, the Turkish business community became marked by an increasingly intense polarization between “Islamist” and “secularist” camps. In Chapter 6, the author claims that polarization has led to cohesiveness on both sides of the business community. In this atmosphere, business associations aligning closely with political Islam acted together in order to acquire power in various organizations, such as corporatist business chambers and development agencies. The Turkish Industry and Business Association (Türk Sanayicileri ve İşadamları Derneği, TÜSİAD)—which represents the “secular” business people—also developed close relations with provincial enterprises that fell outside the constituency of political Islam (pp. 142–147). Although tensions among business associations manifested themselves in chambers, their umbrella organization, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (Türkiye Odalar ve Borsalar Birliği, TOBB), played an important role in keeping businesspeople from different sectors and sizes together and in mobilizing their interest, which provided an important mechanism for increasing cohesiveness within the business sector as a whole (pp. 136–140). This cohesiveness had a positive impact on generating coordination mechanisms between the state and business. However, due to polarization, the coordination mechanisms provided by TOBB remained limited. As Özel argues, polarization “endangers coordination due to selective inclusion, by and large at the discretion of the executive” (p. 140).

Unlike Turkey, gradual institutional changes in the second phase of transition in Mexico resulted in fragmentation within both the state and the business community, as described in Chapter 7. These institutional changes affected relations within the business community and the relative power and influence of different business associations. New regulations on lobbying, together with the “abolition of compulsory membership in chambers,” diminished the power of peak business organizations and chambers. The associational environment became more diversified and fragmented as newly formed NGOs, think tanks, and consultancy firms came to play important roles in the mechanisms of interest representations (pp. 159–168). Furthermore, the political regime change that put an end to the hegemony of a single party and brought new political and economic institutions to the fore also increased fragmentation within the state bureaucracy. In this respect, the “division of legislature in 1997” and the introduction of new economic agencies increased the number of actors and prevented the formation of effective channels of cooperation between the state and business (pp. 168–172).

This book makes important contributions to the existing literature on government-business relations in emerging market economies. Its emphasis on “alliance sustainability” (pp. 4, 18) and “the revival of corporatist organizations” (p. 203) as powerful actors in the business community in emerging markets such as Turkey are especially noteworthy for theory construction. However, there are a few weaknesses that need to be mentioned. Firstly, while the author does show the importance of transnational actors and networks in shaping state-business interaction, she does not elaborate upon this role systematically within the theoretical framework of the book. A more systematic discussion would have contributed to the existing literature that focuses exclusively on the roles of domestic political actors, including the central government, in shaping government-business relations. An analysis of the interaction between global, regional, and national levels is necessary to go beyond the emphasis placed on domestic actors in order to explore the new dynamics of government-business interactions. Secondly, the book successfully details the new coordination mechanisms and institutions that contributed to increasing cohesiveness within the state during the second stage of transition in Turkey. However, further discussion is needed on the processes through which “inter- and intra-organizational rivalry” in the economic bureaucracy resulted in internal cohesiveness. Thirdly, although the author argues that state-business coordination is a key factor behind economic development and economic outcomes, she does not discuss what she means by “economic development” or how different patterns of state-business interaction have affected economic development in these two countries. The author convincingly offers evidence on the relationship between the levels of cohesiveness/fragmentation and “coordination-inducing institutions,” but she does not demonstrate whether “levels of cohesiveness and fragmentation” and state-business interaction really matter, and whether they make a difference for “economic development.” Nor does the book discuss which indicators can be used to demonstrate the impact of different trajectories of state-business interactions on economic development and economic outcomes.

Lastly, the subtitle of the book is “Turkey, Mexico and North Africa.” Therefore, one could reasonably expect a systematic comparison between Turkey, Mexico, and North African countries. However, the book restricts itself to providing, in Chapter 8, only a general framework for three North African countries—Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia—based on secondary resources and drawing lessons from Mexico and Turkey for these countries. Despite this limitation, Chapter 8 does situate North African countries within the context of worldwide transition, and encourages us to rethink state-business alliances during market transition processes.

All in all, the book provides a very rich, empirically grounded analysis for anyone interested in developmental economics, market transition processes, institutional changes, and the changing dynamics of government-business relations in emerging market economies.