Institutional reform has proved an enduring theme in the lending programmes of international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the IMF and the World Bank. But research harbours strong objections to the feasibility of IFI-led institutional restructuring. This article evaluates these objections in the light of evidence from Turkey, a country with an early record of programme-based reform initiatives in many institutional domains. Drawing on Turkey’s central bank independence, banking regulation, anti-corruption and agricultural subsidy reforms, it argues that IFI-guided institutional restructuring may indeed encounter severe feasibility problems unless prescribed and implemented in a propitious environment marked by powerful international norms, widely accepted design templates, high levels of bureaucratic preparedness, and active endorsement from key domestic players.