UNDER THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES IN TECHNOLOGY POLICY MAKING: THE CASES OF TURKISH HEALTH BIOTECHNOLOGY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY SECTORS

Abstract

Health biotechnology (HEB) and renewable energy (RES) are emerging and promising research areas for developing countries and Turkey. Science and Technology (S&T) policies can potentially be exploited to eradicate the unbalances in S&T capacity building for developed and developing countries. Nonetheless, policy-making in these sectors is seen as ambiguous and unsettled in Turkey due to the developing nature of the technologies, the dynamic environment in which technologies are used and changing circumstances depending on the actors’ problems and needs. Policies in HEB are loose compared to policies in RES. Nonetheless, these two sectors are distinct and unique in their peculiarities; responses to the policy problems are converging due to the common motivation of political intervention, namely uncertainty in decision-making. This joint structural response makes them search for illegal or auxiliary solutions for their sectoral problems and needs. Therefore, here the main examination unit is the ‘uncertainty’ in policy-makers' actions that make the actors behave in parallel despite structural differences. In this context, we discuss the socioeconomic impacts of the political intervention of the Turkish policy-makers in HEB and RES. For this purpose, two qualitative data sets are elaborated, and the joint and separate patterns behind the policy-making were examined with interview data from HEB and RES. In other words, we discussed the "character" sitting under the sword of Damocles. Is it a "policy-maker", "researcher", or the "firm owner"? Or are they inseparable, and so are they feeling the same fear?