The new right and Özalism: a comparative perspective

This thesis serves for the aim of investigating the politics of the 1980s in Turkey by focusing on the policies and the ideology of the ANAP. This study aimed to examine the Turkish politics in the 1980s under the light of the New Right ideology. The ANAP seemed to be the advocator of the New Right ideology in Turkey. Both global and national environment of the 1970s necessitated a new form of politics for the solution of both economic and political problems. The ANAP was accepted as one particular response to the national and international crises of the 1970s. , ■T'.tAv, Thatcherism and Reaganism are two significant examples that are agreed to be the practises of the New Right ideology. In order to explore the affinity between the Turkish, American and British practises in the 1980s, a kind of comparative analysis was necessary. I explored the basic characteristics of the New Right in the first place, then focused on the ANAP’s party structure, ideology, economic and political perspectives. Under the light of these, I turned to the international scale, and compared the Ozal government with Thatcher and Reagan governments. Within the framework of above procedure, this thesis indicates that the practises of the 1980s in Turkey matches with the British and American practises and the ideology of the New Right to a certain extent. However, one cannot ignore some specific characteristics of the Turkish case which necessitated some changes in the ideology and practises.