ABSTRACT
The Kemalist Discourse (KD) displays a strong commitment to the Kemalist tradition. It fully adheres to the principles of a Kemalist state advocating a strong separation between religious and political affairs. The roots of today's main political discourses in Turkey lie at the heart of this juggling act between the forces of tradition and modernity. Switching between + and - scores will not only depict a better picture of the salient issues to which discourses subscribe, it also, and perhaps more importantly, will reveal some inconsistencies that discourses display in their attitudes towards Islam, democracy and secularism. One way of describing the Nationalist Discourse (ND) dual character is that it is culturally Islamic but politically secular and authoritarian. The Liberal Left Discourse (LLD) commitment to the rule of law based on protection of individual rights does not carry any inconsistencies as in the case of the KD and the ND.
