ABSTRACT
This chapter interprets the seven reformers through the concept of centrist liberalism, which is one of the elements of geoculture within Wallerstein’s Modern World-System approach. After briefly summarizing Wallerstein’s statements on this concept, the chapter demonstrates that these reformers can be interpreted as centrist liberals. This is achieved by drawing from their writings and speeches with respect to three aspects, which are constitutive of centrist liberalism: first, they usually preferred gradual political change and were opposed to revolutionary upheavals. Second, while they accepted social stratification, they tended to stress meritocracy over ascribed hierarchies. Third, they placed themselves into the political centre, their antagonists being traditionalists on the one side and Westernizers, secularists and/or revolutionaries on the other side. In the chapter’s conclusion, it is argued that, given that their political stages were peripheral countries, the reformers could not achieve the ‘triumphant liberalism’ which Wallerstein attests to their counterparts in the core countries.
