Second Republic debates in Turkey

Abstract

This study aims at analyzing the Second Republic debat es in Turkey in the early 1990s which are import ant in det er mi ni ng the contours of its democratization process. The crux of the following study is to analyze the Second Republic debates in Turkey and to situate them in democr at i c theory. The Second Republic debates can be approached from the viewpoints of two different currents of ideas embracing Rousseauean and Lockean elements, fhe conceptual difference between a republic and a democr acy is also analyzed in this thesis. The different views presented by the two groups (pro versus anti-Second Republicans) are situated within democratic theory as well as analyzed under four main headings; political, economic, fiscal and social. The proSecond Republicans display a more Lockean issue ori ent ed understanding, where the anti-Second Republicans are more Rousseauean emphasizing the need to preserve the existing egalitarian political culture in Turkey.