ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at political and economic liberalisation in Turkey following the Second World War. The roots of industrial capitalism will be traced back through the single-party period (1924-45) with an emphasis on the role played by the state. This is in keeping with Michael Mann’s focus on centralised political power as the key to economic advance, and societal change generally, in north-west Europe. In seeking to uncover the social origins of the various political and ideological alignments that emerged in Turkey during the period of Democrat Party governance in the 1950s, this chapter will concentrate on Mann’s elucidation of ‘class’. Here, the rural and urban groups that he identifies within European polities will be compared with those existent in Turkey during the post-war years. It is intended that this will provide a means of examining the extent to which these networks conform with, or deviate from, the pattern of European social development that he outlines. Of particular interest will be the role such organisations played in the emergence of what Mann terms the second phase of modern nationalism, that of ‘industrial-capitalism’.
