The democrat as a social type : the case of Turkey in the 1990s

Abstract

The main purpose of this dissertation is the explanation of the emergence of a new social type of political opinion producers in Turkey, namely, "the Democrat", throughout the two decades following the 1980 military coup. The common characteristics that constitute the Democrat is investigated utilizing the "social type analysis" approach. Within that methodological framework, the following analytical steps are followed: (1) First, in order to identify the components of the social type, a socio-historical analysis the political history of Turkey between 1980-1999 is completed, with three focal points: The September 12, 1980 coup (with specific emphasis on neo-liberal restructuring of Turkish state and Özalism); re-emergence of the Kurdish Question; and the revival of the Islamic movement. (2) Secondly, collected qualitative data, through in-depth interviews with three representative figures of the Democrat (Ali Bayramoğlu, Etyen Mahçupyan, KürĢat Bumin) is analyzed in order to lay out the profile of the social type. (3) Lastly, the constitutive components of Democrat as a social type are brought together, in relation to the qualitative data and the socio-historical analysis.