ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the confusion and conflict which permeated state-business relations during the latter part of the 1960s and all of the 1970s. The seemingly unanimous private-sector support of the Justice Party (JP) masked the discontent brewing over the party's handling of parochial concerns. These would all surface in 1969 with the revolt at the Turkish Union of Chambers (TOB), the heart of Demirel's constituency. The Demirel government responded by refusing to recognize the elections, thereby precipitating an unprecedented crisis in state-business relations. Necmettin Erbakan's successful bid for the TOB's leadership was the first in a chain of events that would shake private sector confidence in the JP. The 1970 stabilization measures had already demonstrated that there were solutions to Turkey's problems. The stabilization plan grew out of two developments: a foreign exchange shortfall and an anticipated large budget deficit triggered by a civil service reform.
