ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century the modernizing elite of the Ottoman empire explored liberal democracy as an important part of their desire to understand and, often, to emulate the West. The role of the assembly has ever since been of prime importance in Turkish constitutional thinking, though Ataturk was often constrained to sidestep and manipulate the assembly for the sake of the success of the revolution. The quite rapid process of economic development, by creating centers of wealth and prestige outside of government, is slowly reducing the importance of politics and, it is to be expected, of political patronage. The military genuinely believed that it was intervening in order to save democracy, seeing that the freedoms available in liberal democracy were being abused for illiberal and undemocratic purposes. The president had important powers of appointment to the Constitutional Court and the military courts and appointed the chief and deputy public prosecutors.
