Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to provide information about how the concept of democratization was introduced to the Turkish politics, and the transformation and processes of the Democratic Party until they came to power in 1950. While the etymological meaning of democracy is "public power," it took on very different meanings in today's societies and become a concept, which is used for describing different applications as a result of long discussions on its meaning, implications, and forms of implementation. Therefore, I am of the opinion that the field of this concept must be limited and evaluated by considering the applications. It can be suggested that democracy is a dialogue regime. Closed societies, wherein dialogue is not developed, cannot create a democratic culture.

Therefore, fundamentalism is always under threat in a cosmopolitan communication world, because it is the rejection of dialogue in situations, where reconciliation is possible with dialogue. Dialogue and reconciliation culture of democracy is a regime, which levels extremism and radicalism and integrates extreme ends to the system. ³⁷

Democratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy, a transition from an authoritarian political system to a semi-democracy, or a transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic political system. The outcome may be consolidated, or democratization may face frequent reversals. Different patterns of democratization are often used to explain other political phenomena, such as whether a country goes to a war, or whether its economy grows. Democratization itself is influenced by various factors; economic development, history, and civil society. The ideal result of

Hicret Aydın, “On The Bases of Conservative Thought The Perception of Democracy and The 37

Example of Justice and Development Party in Turkey”, Pamukkale University Institute of Social Sciences Department of Public Administration, postgraduate Thesis, Denizli, August 2008, p. 47.

democratization is to ensure that the people have the right to vote and have a voice in their political system. ³⁸

Democratization means building a democratic structure in a society, strengthening it, and, more importantly, running it in a healthy way. According to Charles Tilly, "Democratization is a process that, in essence, means a change in favor of the antagonists in relations between those who are not allowed to participate in government administration. The Main elements of the democratization process include more involvement of the governed in state and political decision-making mechanisms and trying to limit the arbitrariness of state organs to legal and institutional mechanisms.” ³⁹

In order for a society to become democratic in a real sense and permanently, it is imperative that the society has the necessary conditions to be found in a democratic society. In a more concrete form, for example, the fact ⁴⁰ that Europe has lived through some periods of time; reform, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the process of industrialization are the basic conditions for the formation of a democratic environment and process. Thus, society should be freed from prejudices based on religious rhetoric, the boundaries of intellectual vision horizons must expand, and the value of individual freedom must become understandable. Otherwise, the democratic structure that is trying to be set up from below in societies that do not have these processes will be short-lived, can be destroyed by small fluctuations, or cannot become rooted and permanent. As long as the democratic society does not have the ⁴¹ consciousness of adopting democracy, it can be said that there is no chance of continuing democratization in that society. The inability of democratization to become sufficiently rooted in Turkey, failure to become institutionalized and gain continuity is based on this.

Conversi, ibid., pp. 247-262.

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Charles Tilly, Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1950-2000, Cambridge, 2003, p. 14-15.

39

Conversi, ibid., pp. 247-262.

40

Tilly, ibid., p. 14-15.

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One of the most important characteristics of democracy is political participation and elections. In terms of participation in political life, a fundamental principle is the freedom of political choice. The citizens are free to become a member of any political party they want, vote for any candidate and think as they wish. These principal characteristics distinguish democracies from authoritarian and totalitarian systems. Democracy refers to a system, in which political power is held by representatives and representative institutions elected by citizens, who have the ultimate authority and say, and assigned officers to comply with them. ⁴²

Within the scope of political institutions, three principles are important in a democracy: Recognition of fundamental rights which must be respected by the power, social representation of administrators and their policies, and citizenship, that is, the sense of belonging to a community, which is based on law. ⁴³ According to Gozler, in order for a state to be democratic, it must fully abide by the wishes of the entire society. In this theory, real democracies, which are not ideal but come close to reaching the ideal, are addressed. There are 6 conditions for democracy to be realized: 1. Active political authorities take office with an election. 2. Elections must be repeated at regular intervals. 3. Elections must be on the basis of free consent. 4. More than one political party must participate in the elections. 5. The opposition must have a chance to come to power. 6.

Fundamental civil rights must be recognized and guaranteed. In this context, ⁴⁴ democracy is a system, which is functional on the basis of pluralism, transparency, and participation. In this sense, one must lay emphasis that to what extent politicians in Turkey adhere to these above-mentioned principles.

There are also waves of democratization. According to Huntington, “A wave of democratization is a group of transitions from nondemocratic to democratic regimes that occur within a specified period of time and

Aydın, ibid., p. 49-50.

42

Alain Touraine, What is Democracy?, Translate: Olcay Kunal, Yapı Kredi Publication, Istanbul, 2002, 43

p. 358-360.

Kemal Gözler, Anayasa Hukukuna Giriş, Ekin Publication, Bursa, 2004, p. 112-114.

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significantly outnumber transitions in the opposite direction during that period of time. Three waves of democratization have occurred in the modern world.

Each wave affected a relatively small number of countries. During each wave, some regime transitions occurred in a nondemocratic direction. Turkey is under the second wave.” According to Huntington, this second wave of ⁴⁵ democratization started in World War II. Allied occupation promoted inauguration of democratic institutions in West Germany, Italy, Austria, Japan, and Korea, while Soviet pressure snuffed out incipient democracy in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Turkey and Greece moved towards democracy. ⁴⁶

The concept of democracy was first introduced to the political literature of Anatolian lands in the last years of the Ottoman Empire. Understanding the history of democratization of Anatolia will also provide a chance to make an analysis and interpret the current situation of Turkey. Therefore, it is considered to give information about the Tanzimat Period. Turkey started to discuss the democracy and democratization in the last period of Ottoman Empire, especially the Tanzimat (literally meaning reorganization of the Ottoman Empire, was a period of reformation that began in 1839 and ended with the first Constitutional Era in 1876) and Constitutional Era. Between these eras, a large number of reforms had been enacted; guaranteeing the right of life and property to all the Ottoman Empire's subjects, the abolition of slavery, legalization of homosexuality and so on.

After this, the process that took place with the establishment of the Turkish Republic has been explained in detail. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, and Single-Party Period undoubtedly have a very important place in the political history of Turkey. Finally, the period of transition to a multi-party system, which is regarded as one of the important

Samuel Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, University of 45

Oklahoma Press, 1991, p. 15.

Huntington, ibid., p. 18.

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turning points of Turkish democracy, has been discussed with examples. In this way, the background of democratization quest in Turkey has been summarized.

2.1 Democratization Process in Turkish Political History