Metin Heper

The Justice and Development Party Government and the Military in Turkey

Abstract Civil–military relations in Turkey have always been problematic. On several occasions the military has intervened in politics. With the coming to power of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in November 2002, those relations could have taken a new twist, for the military in Turkey has always been a robust guardian of secularism and there has been a suspicion on the part of the military and other secularist groups in that country that the AKP was engaged in dissimulation (takiyye), and that it would sooner or later try to bring back in Turkey a state based on Islam. The present essay takes up this issue and in particular indicates instances of hostile relations between the military and the AKP turning into cooperative, if not friendly, ones.

Center and Periphery in the Ottoman Empire With Special Reference to the Nineteenth Century

The article takes issue with two hypotheses often claimed in the literature-that the Ottoman centuries extending from the sixteenth to the nineteenth evince a progressive development from a centralized to a quasi-feudal polity, and that during the course of the nineteenth century progress had been made toward a constitutional government. It is noted that throughout the period in question, in fact, two types of relationship existed between the center and the periphery: power politics and a degenerated form of patron- client relationship. The change that took place has been no more than a segregative change. Change in the periphery itself was not evolutionary, let alone revolutionary. At times it showed signs of involution; any weakening of the central control led to maximum legal irresponsibility.

The Strong State as a Problem for the Consolidation of Democracy Turkey and Germany Compared

Consolidation of a democracy requires the establishment of a balance between the horizontal and vertical dimensions of democracy, that is, between participation and responsible leadership. The balance in question necessitates a harmonious relationship between the state and civil society. A too strong state as well as a too weak one poses difficulties for a viable democracy to flourish. This article elaborates this view by a comparison of the fortunes of democracy in Turkey and Germany. Both countries have had strong states. In Turkey, however, the state had been stronger than the state in Germany, and, as compared to the Germans, the Turks found it more difficult to consolidate their democracies.

Civil-Military Relations in Turkey: Toward a Liberal Model?

In Republican Turkey, the military has always had respect for democracy. However, from 1960 onwards, the military intervened in politics on four occasions. This was because it felt responsible for dealing with internal as well external threats to the country. From 2002 onwards, however, the military began to openly question the very wisdom of intervening in politics. In the following years, the military seemed to have come close to thinking that the civilians “have the right to be wrong.”

Political Modernization as Reflected in Bureaucratic Change: The Turkish Bureauracy and A “Historical Bureaucratic Empire” Tradition

Political modernization is a difficult concept to grapple with 1 . The traditional approach is to view the political systems of industrially developed Western countries as a model of, or sometimes even as a synonym for, a politically developed polity.

The Role of Bureaucracy and Regime Types A Comparative Study of Turkish and South Korean Higher Civil Servants

The objective is to assess the validity of one general proposition that has been central to much of the thinking and theorizing among students of comparative public administration. It is that the political roles ofpublic bureaucracies vary systematically with the regime types. This proposition is examined in the context of two disparate political systems; Korea and Turkey. The data are derived from personal interviews conducted with 232 Turkish and 225 Korean civil servants of the highest ranks. The analysis focuses on three aspects of the bureaucracy: its policy-making role, its accountability to the public, and the character of its professional norms. The evidence lends no support for the proposition and thereby raises some questions about its validity.

IS LEGAL-RATIONAL BUREAUCRACY A PREREQUISITE FOR A RATIONAL- PRODUCTIVE BUREAUCRACY? The Case of Turkey

The particular pattern the bureaucratic development in Turkey has evinced suggests that legal rationality is a prerequisite for the successful institutionalization of rational productivity. Whereas there is a zero-sum type of relationship between patrimonialism on one hand and legal rationality and rational productivity on the other, there is a positive-sum type of relationship between legal rationality and rational productivity.

Turkey: Yesterday, today and tomorrow

Until recently, although they did not subscribe to political Islam, religiously‐oriented political parties in Turkey were closed down because their leaders could not prevent some militant members from making statements provocative to the secular and democratic regime in that country. Turkey has had a cultural‐cum‐civic nationalism; consequently, even Turkeys long‐standing Kurdish problem, which in recent years has been brought under control, did not give rise to ethnic nationalism. Nonetheless, the military, which in the post‐19 60 period has intervened in politics several times, has continued to perceive political Islam and the ethnic question as critical threats for Turkey. Here the generally inept performance of political actors was a major contributory factor. On the eve of the twenty‐first century, however, Turkey has begun to be governed by a stable and effective coalition government that has enabled the Turks to look into the future with greater optimism.

Institutions and democratic statecraft

Political Institutions And Democracy * Introduction Metin Heper. * Institutions, Democratic Stability, and Performance Bert A. Rockman. Well Established Democracies * Gridlock and the Crisis of Leadership in the U.S. Colin Campbell. * British Democracy and Its Discontents Graham Wilson. * What Kind of Democracy Do Canadians Want? Michael Atkinson. * Institutional Reform, Rationalization, and the Transformation of Australian Democracy Mark Considine. * Stability and Representation in France Valerie Rubsamen. Relatively Established Democracies * Institutionalizing Democracy in Germany: From Weimar to Bonn and Berlin Hans-Ulrich Derlien. * Freezing, Adaptation, and Change in Italian Democracy Leonardo Morlino. * Surviving the Odds in the Case of Indian Democracy R. B. Jain. * Transforming Israeli Democracy Under Stress Fred A. Lazin. Newly Established Democracies * Constitution Making and Democratic Consolidation in Turkey Ergun zbudun. * Division or Cohesion in the Polish Executive and the Democratic Order George J. Szablowski. * Managing Democratic Consolidation in Spain: From Consensus to Majority in Institutions Richard Gunther. Conclusion * Connecting Political Institutions to Democracy Ali Kazancigil.

The State and Public Bureaucracies: A Comparative and Historical Perspective

In its conventional Weberian version, “the state” is used to refer to human associations that successfully claim the monopoly of legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. In this conception, the state is presumed to have final authority, i.e., sovereignty as first formulated by Jean Bodin. As elaborated by David Easton, such a state is a neutral “transformatory structure” that would be “captured” by elected regimes, and used as an instrument for their own specific political purposes.