ABSTRACT
On January 24, 1980, the Demirel government announced what would turn out to be the most significant set of economic measures since 1960. This chapter discusses the implementation of the January 24 measures and shows how the September coup ensured success and the engineering of the Bureaucratic Authoritarian (BA) state in Turkey. The Turkish rendition of the BA state ultimately transformed the balance of power in the private sector by creating an atmosphere in which the state could pursue orthodox economic policies without interference from the vested interests in that sector. The military takeover relieved the Justice Party of its political problems and of maintaining the economic course under what were deteriorating economic conditions. Turkey's political economic crisis in the late 1970s and the subsequent 1980 military intervention bear a striking resemblance to the coups and severe economic crises experienced by many Latin American countries in the 1960s and 1970s.
