ABSTRACT

Prominent themes in Turkey’s political development are modernization and Westernization, notions that carry with them a particular teleology in terms of expected political outcomes. While Turkey has, over several decades, modernized in several respects, Westernization has arguably been much more limited, particularly in terms of embracing political liberalism. This paper scrutinizes its failure to take root in Turkey, noting how a congruence of factors at both the mass and elite levels tends to work against policies that would embrace individual rights and freedoms, pluralism, and a more limited role for the state. It focuses in particular on three periods in Turkish history when liberalism could have potentially been adopted, but ultimately failed to succeed.

摘要

土耳其政治发展的突出主题是现代化和西化，这些概念在预期的政治结果方面带有特定的目的论。尽管土耳其几十年来在多个方面实现了现代化，但西方化可以说要有限得多，特别是在接受政治自由主义方面。本文审视了它未能在土耳其扎根的失败，指出大众和精英层面的多种因素如何倾向于与支持个人权利和自由、多元化以及国家作用更加有限的政策相悖。它特别关注土耳其历史上的三个时期，在这些时期，自由主义有可能被采纳，但最终未能成功。