Military Guardianship, Elites and Political Culture of Turkey 1923-2002

This book attempts to shed light on the reasons and consequences of military¿s dominance in Turkish democracy from the establishment of the modern Republic until the rise of the current governing Justice and Development Party (Ak Parti) in 2000¿s. Via a theoretical approach, in addition to the necessary democratic principles and procedures that are beyond the simple logic of electoralism, the element of ¿political culture¿ will be taken into account in order to explain the democratic consolidation and to grasp the significance of the role of elites in a governance-system. Throughout the Republican history and particularly starting from the coup d¿état in 1960, the military is understood as the dominant section of state-elites and its involvement into the political life is evaluated congruent with a guardianship model in the democratizing system of Turkey. In order to explain this guardianship, established values, beliefs and ideas of elites and their statist system will be specified as some of the main constituents of the explanatory political culture in this country.