Corporatist Ideology in Kemalist Turkey: Progress or Order?

This book provides an informed analysis of the ideological content of Kemalismthe name given to Mustafa Kemal Atat rk'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 Atat rk'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 Atat rk 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.

Author: Taha Parla, Andrew Davison
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 12/01/2004
Pages: 332
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.48w x 1.07d
ISBN: 9780815630548

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2005 pg. 1664

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.