Kemalism in Contemporary Turkey

In: International political science review: the journal of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) = Revue internationale de science politique, Band 1, Heft 3, S. 381-404

Abstract

Revolution in Turkey began with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's organization of resistance movement in Anatolia after Turkey's surrender to the Allies in 1918. The Turkish revolution comprised the period of national struggle and the ensuing period of reforms which were aimed at complete transformation of Turkish society. Kemalism represented the ideological basis of this revolution. The successful termination of the Turkish national liberation movement heralded the birth of the third world. The scope and depth of the institutional, legal, and cultural reforms of Atatürk were more conducive to nation building than those in the economic sphere. The unfinished aspects of the Turkish revolution, that is, the modernization of the socioeconomic structure, constitute the highest priority on the agenda of contemporary Turkey. Kemalism is a national ideology of modernization, and as such it continues to be the most favored ideology of the Turkish political elite and intelligentsia.