Modernization and Westernization of Kemalist Turkey by Henric Fuch - Article Example

The paper of Henric Fuch, “Modernization and Westernization of Kemalist Turkey” aims at answering why Turkey has not been able to achieve the goal ofmodernization in terms of Atatürk who equalled modernization with westernization. This actually relates to the First wave of Modernisation theory which was pro western in nature. (‘Modernization Theory’) The theory was later criticized owing to its pro western nature. The main objective of the author is to focus on two factors: the failure of Turkey to represent itself as modernized according to Kemal Ataturk’s logic of western civilization and the relevance of Kemalism regarding the modernization. The author has considered the socio-political factors to make his judgment. To realize all the facts and the questions we need to go through Kemal Ataturk and his ideology thoroughly. By the conceptualization of Kemal Ataturk, the rule of the country in the form of a Sultan rule and the influence of religious Caliphate on the rule might be marked as obsolete and  such rules would hamper the pace of modernization. According to his ideology the country should be ruled by the state-society through a nation state instead of some religious Caliphate. He conceived modernism as a method not only to maximize national welfare but also to ensure security of the state in the long run. The main form of modernization, as per the perception of Ataturk, was the process of westernization. He was in favour of replacing the Ottoman heritage by some radical social, political, structural and cultural change. The traditional system of monarchy and religious influence was to be changed by a fresh air of modern system such as Swiss civil code, Latin alphabets and many other drastic changed. That obviously changed the form of turkey, rather we cans say at that time there were some distortions also that was associated with the sudden eradication of the long celebrated traditional cultures of turkey and then introducing some new cultures, to be precise, a set of the western culture. Kemal Ataturk based his nationalism on secularism and importance of the state. The Kemalism intended to plough a deep sense of proud for being a citizen of turkey. In the context of citizenship Kemal introduced the institutions to promote economic, political and industrial development. The multi party democracy was established in turkey in order to encourage nationalism. The secularism of Kemal was influenced by the criticism that was delivered by the European elites against the face of Islamic politics as a source of backwardness. The Kemalism was in favour of giving the state more importance over the religion and religious belief. In this context turkey did not announce any official religion and kept the religious beliefs aside from the political sphere.  Rather, a Turkish version of Islam was introduced which could be called a modern form of Islam. Kemal set his republican view by the establishment of the sovereignty of the nation. The personal rule was dissolved by the introduction of a new representative democracy which he called the liberal republic.   In populist view of Kemal Ataturk was reflected through his policies that aimed to protect the Turk people with the help of administration, politics and the distribution. The establishment of a welfare state was targeted. Moreover Kemal was keen to establish the economic inequality within the country. The Turkish state was planned to go in the path of a mixed type of economic system. The state enterprises were given equal importance as the private enterprises and they were supposed to be the complementary to each other. In the writing the author has judged the condition and the evolution of Turkey on the perspective of modernization and westernization. The modernization theory, according to Lipset, emphasizes the occurrence and stability of democracy and the necessities of democracy such as economic development and political legitimacy. The modernization can be best understood on the perspective of a western type of democracy along with industrial and capitalist atmosphere. The stability of democracy is secured by the following two factors: economic development that includes industrialization, wealth, urbanization and education and legitimacy that if determined by the efficiency of the entire system. It has been found that the countries which are successful in the establishment of a modern industrial system have the smallest political strain. According to Lipset the basic three features of modernism are: the relative significance of religion in the state, the inclusion of the lower class people in decision making and the distribution of wealth. A modern democratic system can be established by the proper addressing of the above three factors. If either of the above remains unsolved that would bring about problem in future. Huntington was close to Lipset regarding the convention of modernization. He has just included two major factors: social mobilization and complex occupational structure with the work of Lipset. He has also mentioned modernization as a revolutionary process. The main characteristics of modern society, according to Huntington, are: transfer of new techniques, inventions, practices and the transformation of the economy from an agriculture based society to industry based society. On the other hand the westernization theory refers to the process through which the societies adopt western culture in the matters like industry, technology, law, politics etc. The westernization is a process through which the rule of the law is established. The theory of social pluralism is supported and the democracy is established within the social pluralism. In that democratic pattern the representative bodies play the role of the ruler. The people play active role in choosing the representatives. The central authority is supported and complemented by the decentralized local authorities. Moreover, westernization has a growing trend towards industrialization. The author concluded that it was time for Turkey to gather the fragments and work towards the building of a welfare state by implementing economic and social reforms and all the economically backward classes should be given the rights and privileges they deserve. The political sphere should sort out their problems and the differences between Kemalists and Islamists should be sorted out. The idea was to replace the nationalist sentiments by western form of individualism in order to become a part of the European community if the people of Turkey wanted it. The methodology used by the author is of qualitative nature where the first assumption was that westernization may be equalled to modernization. We have already mentioned before that this is a pro western view and became obsolete. The second wave of modernization ahs criticized this theory of western bias. (‘Modernization Theory’) Lipset and Huntington’s theory of modernization also speaks in favour of sacrificing one’s resources to the western needs in order to be accepted as a part of their community. This is however a different form of colonialism where the colonized nation is willingly asking the colonizing country to dominate and dictate its rules and policies. The importance of the thesis is to justify the inclusion of Turkey into the European Union and what benefits have resulted from the inclusion. Also it highlights whether Turkey should be included as a part of the European Community owing to the differences in its social structure and religious views. Turkey is still dominated by Islamist views and therefore can we say that it has not modernized. The research question was why it has not westernized or modernized but the grounds of modernism chosen itself may be questioned here. Is a nation westernizes can we say it has modernized in social terms? We may bring on the viewpoints of Marx and Weber. Following the theory of Huntington and Lipset the author has even included Catholicism as a part of westernization which would destroy the religious identity of the state of Turkey. This would create further controversies. Let us discuss the theories of Marx and Weber in order to understand the link between modernism and religion. While describing the state of the economy and addressing the issue of poverty, he states, “The economist understands very well that men make cloth, linen, or silk materials in definite relations of production. But what he has not understood is that these definite social relations are just as much produced by men as linen, flax, etc. Social relations are closely bound up with productive forces. In acquiring new productive forces men change their mode of production; and in changing their mode of production, in changing the way of earning their living, they change all their social relations.” (Marx) In this respect Marx’s idea is similar to that of Lipset and Huntington where production techniques gain a priority. Being a part of the European Union indicates better access to resources and sharing of production techniques which will lead to reforms that might transform and modernize the economy but retaining one’s identity is also very important in terms of modernized society. Weber presented the religious view of the modern man by indicating money been designated as its new god who is a demanding. People work even harder such that they might earn the ever-powerful dollar and thus discontent result because people living in a certain period always run after the illusive money. According to Weber, “since ascetism undertook to remodel the world and to work out its ideals in the world, material goods have gained an increasing and inexorable power over the lives of men as at no previous period in history.” (Weber, 124) Here again, he reflects some of Marxist views because even he suggests that object (money) takes on the power (since people run after it) since man allows it. This happens only within the realm of capitalism. Weber also points to the power of bureaucracy as a means by which community action is transformed into societal action. If the state is supposed to exit then the dominated also should obey the order of the state and thus the powerful remained ever powerful and the dominated was always dominated. This echoes Marx’s view on the political influence over the perpetual state of inequality, “The restricted character of political emancipation immediately appears in the fact that the state can free itself of a limitation without the human being truly being free of it, in the fact that the state can be a free state without the man being a free man.” (Marx, 15) This gives priority to the views of Kemalism where the state was more powerful. This emphasizes upon the independence of the state in taking its own decisions without the individuals of the state being free to act on heir own. Therefore, we might discuss Gidden’s stress on retaining of self identity – “we are faced with a situation where humankind becomes a ‘we’ and so we are faced with a situation where there is no other. If this is the case, what other signs or markers can we use to distinguish ourselves and keep on building our identities? In this instance, writing songs.” (‘Anthony Giddens - Modernity and self identity. Self and society in the late modern age. 1991, Polity Press’) Thus Turkey’s inclusion in the European Union and following Western methods of production and development is always justified but Turkey’s religious difference from the European Union does not need any adjustment in order to equalize with Western ways. Therefore we may say that Turkey is modernized and need not actually be westernized for the purpose of reaching modernity. The best part of Turley is that it conforms to the third wave of modernism where retaining of self identity is important instead of becoming lost in the group. References 1. ‘Anthony Giddens - Modernity and self identity. Self and society in the late modern age. 1991, Polity Press’, Lukeberte, 2007, retrieved on May 7, 2009 from: http://lukeberte.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/anthony-giddens-modernity-and-self-identity-self-and-society-in-the-late-modern-age-1991-polity-press/ 2. Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844," (excerpts). The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Vincent Leitch, ed. W.W. Norton, 2001, p. 764. 3. Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. First section, "Bourgeois and Proletarians," 1848, retrieved on November 11, 2007 from: The Marx-Engels Internet Archive http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm 4. ‘Modernization Theory’, 2004, retrieved on May 7, 2009 from: http://www.cw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Media,%20Culture%20and%20Society/Modernization%20Theory.doc/ 5. Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 2001. Routledge. Read More

In this context turkey did not announce any official religion and kept the religious beliefs aside from the political sphere.  Rather, a Turkish version of Islam was introduced which could be called a modern form of Islam. Kemal set his republican view by the establishment of the sovereignty of the nation. The personal rule was dissolved by the introduction of a new representative democracy which he called the liberal republic.   In populist view of Kemal Ataturk was reflected through his policies that aimed to protect the Turk people with the help of administration, politics and the distribution.

The establishment of a welfare state was targeted. Moreover Kemal was keen to establish the economic inequality within the country. The Turkish state was planned to go in the path of a mixed type of economic system. The state enterprises were given equal importance as the private enterprises and they were supposed to be the complementary to each other. In the writing the author has judged the condition and the evolution of Turkey on the perspective of modernization and westernization. The modernization theory, according to Lipset, emphasizes the occurrence and stability of democracy and the necessities of democracy such as economic development and political legitimacy.

The modernization can be best understood on the perspective of a western type of democracy along with industrial and capitalist atmosphere. The stability of democracy is secured by the following two factors: economic development that includes industrialization, wealth, urbanization and education and legitimacy that if determined by the efficiency of the entire system. It has been found that the countries which are successful in the establishment of a modern industrial system have the smallest political strain.

According to Lipset the basic three features of modernism are: the relative significance of religion in the state, the inclusion of the lower class people in decision making and the distribution of wealth. A modern democratic system can be established by the proper addressing of the above three factors. If either of the above remains unsolved that would bring about problem in future. Huntington was close to Lipset regarding the convention of modernization. He has just included two major factors: social mobilization and complex occupational structure with the work of Lipset.

He has also mentioned modernization as a revolutionary process. The main characteristics of modern society, according to Huntington, are: transfer of new techniques, inventions, practices and the transformation of the economy from an agriculture based society to industry based society. On the other hand the westernization theory refers to the process through which the societies adopt western culture in the matters like industry, technology, law, politics etc. The westernization is a process through which the rule of the law is established.

The theory of social pluralism is supported and the democracy is established within the social pluralism. In that democratic pattern the representative bodies play the role of the ruler. The people play active role in choosing the representatives. The central authority is supported and complemented by the decentralized local authorities. Moreover, westernization has a growing trend towards industrialization. The author concluded that it was time for Turkey to gather the fragments and work towards the building of a welfare state by implementing economic and social reforms and all the economically backward classes should be given the rights and privileges they deserve.

The political sphere should sort out their problems and the differences between Kemalists and Islamists should be sorted out. The idea was to replace the nationalist sentiments by western form of individualism in order to become a part of the European community if the people of Turkey wanted it. The methodology used by the author is of qualitative nature where the first assumption was that westernization may be equalled to modernization.

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