Turkey's Difficult Journey to Democracy: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Abstract

The book examines Turkey's early transition to democracy when its history and level of development did not suggest it to be likely. Noting modernization theories assumed socioeconomic development preceded democratization, it asks two questions: whether an underdeveloped society that adopts democratic rule can sustain it while achieving socioeconomic development, and whether democracy deepens and matures with such development. Tracing Turkey's democratization, it argues that satisfactory socioeconomic development has been achieved, but democracy's deepening and maturing has proven difficult. Turkey's modernization has produced a culturally bifurcated society, where democratization has posed challenges to the ability of modernizing elites to dominate society. The "modernizers" have securitized politics, kept the scope of politics narrow, and rendered negotiated settlements difficult. The "traditionalists," on the other hand, have turned to unrestricted majoritarianism to support their political mandate. Economic development has strengthened civil society and the autonomy of the individual, and brought questions of prosperity to the fore, but pathologies remain. Turkey's democratization process has not been linear but cumulatively its democracy has advanced. © I?lter Turan 2015. All rights reserved.