Title: Ordered liberty and disciplined freedom: Turkish education and republican democracy, 1923–50
Abstract: For students of the twentieth-century Middle East, the problematic prospects of democracy attract great interest. Nation states in this region are politically young in comparison to those of western Europe. After emerging from colonial rule, they have undergone uneven socio-economic development where socio-political processes are telescoped and regimes confront tremendous challenges to survival. Observers have thus pondered whether or not Middle Eastern states can be democratic in a manner understood in the West, where the concept of democracy itself is held to have originated. For those considering democracy alien to Arab-Islamic political culture, Egypt's 'liberal experiment' in parliamentary democracy during 1923-52 presents a clear example of failure, where leaders, parties, monarchs, and foreign powers conspired to vitiate democratic life and discredit it in the eyes of citizens. Likewise, French conduct in inter-war Syria undercut the development of democratic norms, and reinforced the oligarchical political inclinations of the late Ottoman era elite families. Conversely, though identified closely in the West with democracy, Israel has been characterized as manifesting a procedural as opposed to conceptual commitment to democracy, along with elements of ethnic democracy.' Turkey presents something of a contrast to its fellow Ottoman successor states. A movement in the early twentieth century inspired by the French
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 12
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