The three regimes discussed for the US are not entirely true for my country of choice, which is Turkey. The historical and structural reasons are worth to discuss in terms of placing non-western countries to the scheme. While WW1 was happening on lands far away from the US, it had some devastating effects for the losing side. Specifically, Germany faced with very heavy economical conditions and left without any military support, while the Ottoman Empire entirely collapsed and the mainland Turkey was invaded by English, French, Italian, Russian, and Greek armies. After ongoing wars from 1919 to 1924, the Republic of Turkey gained its independence and started to build its modern institutions. The chronological development of science policies can be investigated in three periods: 1924-1950 the cultural revolution, 1950-1980 private/state back and forth, 1980-today the neoliberal adaptation.
For the newborn republic, six major principles were adapted: three from Soviets (Secularism, Statism, Revolutionism), three from the French revolution (Republicanism, Populism, Nationalism). Since the country lost its population during wars and left with almost no health and educational institution, the state had to build large facilities to collect grains for processing, to produce seasonal clothes, and to manufacture natural resources as well as to provide educational and societal infrastructure. Therefore, there was no private entrepreneur due to lack of general income. Especially for the early years, Statism and Revolutionism were two dominant driving forces. The latter one encapsulated the cultural revolution, which includes changing alphabet to boost literacy in public, writing math and geometry books in Turkish (before they were in Arabic), establishing national history and language institutions, publishing history books including evolution, opening village institutes to educate citizens mostly in farming, promoting Western-style music and dancing etc. There was almost no expert in the country, that is why the congress invited German-Jewish and Austrian scientists to Turkey after 1930s. Those German architects shaped the capital’s major streets and buildings, while others contributed to natural sciences, medicine, and philosophy in Istanbul universities in which Reichenbach lectured in between 1933-1938 before he moved to the US (Güner, 2014). One distinguishing factor of the early period was that almost all administrative positions were filled by military officials who were the only well-educated part of the society left after the Ottomans. This tradition has affected the future direction of the country when the democracy was interrupted by military coups multiple times (including one in 2016).
After the WW2, the US identified its enemy being Soviets resulting in policies that aimed for strengthening Europe financially against Soviets with a program called The Marshall Plan (1948-1951). Many European countries, including Turkey, acquired a substantial amount of financial aid to be spent for the structural developments of countries. The ruling party elected in 1950 adopted liberal policies accepting the recommended trade agreements (Yücel, 2006, p. 165). Liberal views here are described as inviting private attempts while reducing the amount of state intervention to science and technology policies. The state allocated budget for large infrastructures such as roads, dams, ports whereas the newly forming private sector was tasked with technology transfer specifically for agricultural development. However, private efforts could not continue to provide acceleration to new investments because prices were climbing up due to a serious currency bottleneck (Yücel, 2006, p. 166). The state intervened in 1956 and established new regulatory institutions. The State Planning Organization (DPT in Turkish) was founded on September 30, 1960 to prepare five-year development plans. One important figure worked in the organization was Turgut Özal, who was the president importing neoliberal policies after 1980s. The science and technology policies in parallel with the planned economic program were exerted by TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) founded in 1963. Notably, two local families (Koç and Sabancı) established and enlarged their business especially after 1950s and they became the driving force of industrial developments until now while they were awarded with the Supreme Service Medal by state presidents time to time. Therefore, it is safe to claim that the state always had its hand on private industry when regulating trade rules and planning next technological directions.
As being an agriculture-driven country for long years, Turkey fell behind the competition in innovation and technology in the heavily industrial world. The need to open country for foreign trade and exportation of technological goods or products was undeniable after 1970s. On January 24, 1980, a new economic program organized by Turgut Özal, as a member of the State Planning Organization, was offered for the state. The program emphasized the open growth strategy aiming for increasing productivity and competitiveness and institutionalizing the market economy. After an unfortunate coup on September 12, 1980, Özal became the vice-president, then the president of Turkey in three years, for some, to execute the new economic program to be adapted for the global market. However, universities and industry stayed largely unconnected and the desired research and development could not be achieved. Just to restore the relationship, technology transfer offices, startups, and innovation centers were promoted in universities, mostly after 2010. The projects on defense, aviation, nanotechnology, and computation were supported by the Defense Industry Development and Support Administration Office (SaGeB) under the Ministry of National Defense, TÜBİTAK, and sometimes by AFOSR (The US Air Force Office of Scientific Research) since Turkey is a member of NATO.
As a result, the state involvement in science was always present in Turkey in varying degrees. At the beginning, Statism was a national ideology of the new republic. Although it has been weakened after 1980s, even today most scientific and technological research is funded by the government. However, this large portion of power dedicated to the state makes institutions, universities, and industries very vulnerable to political interventions. Scientific research has been shaped by the ideology or desires of the ruling party to some extent. For example, projects on genetic research have been financially supported even though the mechanisms of evolution have been removed from the curriculum of high school education. While public debates are around being conservative (radically religious) or nonconservative (secular), the state hold different deals with researchers and citizens. On one hand, the country wants to join the global economy by strengthening its technological capabilities with the help of private industrialization; on the other hand, being national or local has been praised and correlated with a powerful government. This tension between global and local forces is polarizing Turkey enormously.
References
Yücel, İ. H., (2006). The direction of science and technology policies and economic development in Turkey (in Turkish). State Planning Organization, & General Directorate of Social Sectors and Coordination.
Güner, K., (2014). “All national architecture is bad; all good architecture is national” (in Turkish). Available at: https://bilimvegelecek.com.tr/index.php/2014/12/01/her-milli-mimari-fenadir-her-iyi-mimari-millidir/ (Accessed November 14, 2020).