ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the conviction that the answer to the question 'what is an ideology' must, from the morphological perspective, be sought in identifying, describing, and analysing the building blocks that constitute it and the relationships among them. It argues that in order to analyse contemporary Kemalism in any meaningful manner, it needs to be placed within two important contexts: the contemporary world-historical context and the Kemalist tradition. The morphology, a pattern of core, adjacent, and peripheral concepts of contemporary Kemalism can thus be conceptualised as a response to several current developments both in Turkey and internationally by defending the main Kemalist tenets on the level of major political concepts. In other words, contemporary Kemalist ideology can be analysed through its attempt to de-contest these major political concepts and then offer this proposed more or less hierarchical pattern to the public as a true representation of socio-political reality.
