Corporatist Ideology in Kemalist Turkey

by Taha Parla, Andrew Davison

Overview

This book provides an informed analysis of the ideological content of Kemalismthe name given to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's party's political thought and practiceand the persistently official and semi-official, hegemonic ideology of the Turkish Republic, formally founded in 1923. Through a textual and contextual analysis of Kemalism in Atatürk's speeches and the official documents of the ruling Republican People's Party, Taha Parla and Andrew Davison offer fresh interpretations of the political, economic, social, and cultural goals of the Kemalist version of Turkish nationalism. They also provide an astute analysis of the power and authority that Atatürk and his colleagues believed were necessary to achieve their implementation, and of the institutions created in that process.

Kemalism as a democratizing and secularizing framework for modern governance is debated by illuminating Kemalism's emphatic and self-conscious, corporatist ideological core. The authors show how Kemalism's conceptions of society, national identity, the relationship between the state and Islam, and other fundamental political dynamics require a rethinking of its democratic, secular, and modernist reputation, and its prospects for, and barriers to, a more democratic Turkey within the Kemalist legacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815630548
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	12/28/2004
Series:	Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East Ser.
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.07(d)

About the Author

Taha Parla is professor in the Department of Political Science and International relations at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul.

Andrew Davison is associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Vassar College.

Editorial Reviews

This is an iconoclastic essay by a prominent political scientist and a talented and knowledgeable U. S. colleague. . . . Highly Recommended.

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