Globalization, civil society and islam: the question of democracy in Turkey

Abstract

This chapter provides a critical analysis of the ambivalent nature of the present by focusing on one specific case where it has taken the form of "the dilemma of cultural identity on the margin of Europe," namely the Turkish social formation. Islamic discourse acted successfully as an articulating principle of resistance to such uncertainty by identifying ambivalence with global modernity and certainty with community, that is, with a turn to religion. This paradox that characterizes the double-gesture of Islamic discourse as acting both for and against pluralism indicates that it would be mistaken to take for granted the shift towards civil society as a given and an unproblematic space that provides the foundational ground for democratization. The present conjuncture of the Turkish political landscape is based upon a clash between the discourses of progress, secularism, and Reason and the discourses of traditionalism and anti-secularism.