The Military and the Consolidation of Democracy: The Recent Turkish Experience

Abstract

The Military and the Consolidation of Democracy: The Recent 1\irkish Experience METIN HEPER AND AYLIN GUNEY T he significant differences among regions and even countries about the relations between governments and militaries make it impossible to develop an overarching theory of civil-military relations and the prospects for the consolidation of democracy. Prior to the transition to democracy, officers in Latin America functioned as political elites and exercised power in their own right; in contrast, officers in Eastern Europe were coopted by the communist parties and subjected to intense political indoctrination. Consequently, while in Latin America the consolidation of democracy required the demilitarization of politics, in Eastern Europe it required the depoliticization ofthe military.' In Latin America, at the time of the transition to democracy the military retained too many privileges.^ Thus politicians in that continent wished to have greater say about the resources previously controlled by the military so that they could pursue client-oriented policies to gamer votes,^ and they removed officers from state economic enterprises and allocated more funds to civilian ministries.'* In Eastern Europe, because the military had earlier come under the domination of communist parties, the depoliticization ofthe military by the political elite became critical. The best example here is Hungary, where Western democratic values have been quite successfully inculcated in the military.' Turkey constitutes yet another case of civil-military relations that resemble the civil-military relations in Germany between the two World

When Does Globalization Lead to Local Adaptation? The Emergence of Hybrid Islamic Schools in Turkey, 1985–2007

“…However, the growing antisecular rhetoric and activities of those in power disappointed and agitated secular public opinion. This resulted in an escalation of the tension and antagonism between both factions (Heper and Güney 2000;Güven 2005). For secularists, defying Kemalist principles is a threat for democracy, culture, and the republic, while the Islamic opposition wants to "de-Kemalize" culture and in order to obtain freedom of expression of religion in public life (Aydın and Çolak 2004).…”

“…The number of Imam Hatip high schools increased particularly in the 1950s in Turkey because of the increasing influence of political Islam. At the same time, this triggered action from secular countermovements with a strong demand for educational expansion of the secular/cosmopolitan high school type (Heper and Güney 2000;Güven 2005). Therefore, both forms stimulated each other's growth rate as a result of a sequence of movements and countermovements (Boone et al 2011).…”

Europeanization as Institutional Change: The Case of the Turkish Military

“…The puzzle, however, is that the military, which has been a powerful political actor since the beginning of the Republican era, has accepted the removal of its own powers. Why should a veto player (Cizre-Sakallıgoglu, 1997;Heper and Güney, 2000) accept the loss of power vis-à-vis other political actors? How can we explain this change, which was considered 'unthinkable' (Kubicek, 2005: 7)?…”

European Integration and Democratic Consolidation: Spain, Poland and Turkey in Comparative Perspective

“…The NSC Secretariat has acquired a unique leverage to military issues including school curriculum/education, tv broadcasting rights, bureaucratic appointments in the state ministries, political party alignments before the elections, foreign trade, development of energy sector, economic plans, and agricultural development projects (Cizre 1997: 157-8, Biltekin 2007. of the magnitude in consolidated democracies, the EU's push resulted in significant gather intelligence and information from the civilian state institutions (Heper and Guney 2000: 637, de Castro 2010: 49, Bayramoglu 2009. 164 The 1982 constitution also authorized the Chief of Staff to appoint a member for the newly established Higher Education Council, which is responsible for the supervision of universities in the country.…”

“…The head of the government, pro-Islamic Necmettin Erbakan, resigned on June 18, 1997. On the February 28 process, see Cizre and Cinar 2003, Bayramoglu 2009: 97-105, Taspinar 2004, Heper and Guney 2000, Dagi 2001, and Insel 2003 improvements. The EU's impact was most visible in 2001-04, while the subsequent period of slowdown in the Turkey-EU relations has limited the EU's leverage.…”