Abstract:

Turkey belongs to the world’s largest 20 economies and distinguishes from other developing and Islamic countries with its well-educated population, modernity, reconciliation of traditional life and modern life, democratic formation and performance and the economic and civil liberties. However, Turkey has still not overcome middle-income or middle technology trap. In this essay, we recommend to use the concept of “average man trap.” In developing countries, the formation of human resources is also in the development stage. Therefore, closing the gap between developed and developing countries necessitates relatively more rapid development rates. Since focusing directly on effects of human resources on income and technology, we argue that “average man trap” is most explanatory factor for developmental issues. Turkey is located between the countries belong to efficiency driven group and the countries belong to innovation -driven group. We argue that without abandoning “average man model” in the decision making and administrative spheres Turkey will suffer from this trap. When the education investments and internationalization of skilled labor trends are taken into account, Turkey would break its shell in 2025, ten years later than now. Since Turkey has a century and half length long term relationship with the Western Block, our ten year prediction would even be longer due to the historical poor performance. Universities and vocational higher schools are functioning in every corner of the country today, we anticipate that this trend would rapidly improve human resources. Because the current human resources engaging in decision-making mechanisms are not ready to feel confident to delegate their authorities. The fear is losing control of the decision making and business. The socio-political and socio-economic backgrounds of the present managing groups are not very confident to face with higher classes. Therefore, the country will wait until the prospective educated children of the managing classes for taking the authority and delegating the duties and participating more talented personnel to the decision making processes without feeling a threat or complexity.

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