Giving an account of the neo-liberal labour market developments in Turkey since 1980,
this thesis posits that flexibilization of employment relations has shifted the balance of
power between the capitalist class and the working class in favour of the former. After a
brief examination of the development of capitalism in Turkey and the present situation of
the labour market, this thesis questions the neo-liberal argument that the Turkish labour
market is too rigid to create employment as claimed by the flexibility advocates in the
country. From a Marxist political economy perspective, it is argued that flexibility
practices within employment relations have impoverished the working class materially,
ideologically and politically. The downward pressure on wages over the last three
decades together with the spread of loose contractual relations and a-typical forms of
work has become a source of insecurity for labour. With the legalization of the ideology
of flexibility, the social and political character of labour has been undermined.