The rising islamic business elite and democratization in turkey

Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies

Volumn 12, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 399-416

  Başkan, Filiz ^a  

^a IZMIR UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS   (Turkey)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 78650197484     PISSN: 19448953     EISSN: 19448961     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2010.531207     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. Scott Greenwood, 'Bad for business?: entrepreneurs and democracy in the Arab world', Comparative Political Studies, 41(6), 2008, pp. 837-860.
2. Eva Bellin, 'Contingent democrats: industrialists, labor, and democratization in late developing countries', World Politics, 52(2), 2000;
3. Eva Bellin, Stalled Democracy: Capital, Labor, and the Paradox of State-Sponsored Development, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY and London, 2002, pp. 175-205.
4. Ziya Öniş and Umut Türem, 'Entrepreneurs, democracy, and citizenship in Turkey', Comparative Politics, 34(4), 2002, pp. 439-456;
5. Ziya Öniş and Umut Türem, 'Business, globalization and democracy: a comparative analysis of Turkish business associations', Turkish Studies, 2(2), 2001, pp. 94-120.
6. Öniş and Türem, 'Entrepreneurs, democracy, and citizenship in Turkey', op. cit.; Öniş and Türem, 'Business, globalization and democracy', op. cit.
7. Ziya Öniş, 'The political economy of Turkey's Justice and Development Party', in Hakan M. Yavuz (ed.), The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Parti, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, UT, 2006, pp. 207-234;
8. Şebnem Gümüşçü, 'Economic liberalization, devout bourgeoisie, and change in political Islam: comparing Turkey and Egypt', EUI Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies Working Papers 19, 2008.
9. Bellin, 'Contingent democrats', op. cit., p. 180.
10. Ibid., p. 181.
11. Bellin, Stalled Democracy, op. cit., pp. 3-4.
12. Bellin, 'Contingent democrats', op. cit., pp. 189-194.
13. Ibid., p. 179.
14. Ali Yaşar Saribay, Türkiye'de Modernleşme, Din ve Parti Politikasi{dotless}: MSP Örnek Olayi{dotless} [Modernization, Religion and Party Politics in Turkey: The Case of the National Salvation Party], Alan Yayi{dotless}nlari{dotless}, İstanbul, 1985, pp. 98-100;
15. Haldun Gülalp, 'Globalization and political Islam: the social bases of Turkey's Welfare Party', International Journal of Middle East Studies, 33(3), 2001, p. 435.
16. Yildiz Atasoy, 'Cosmopolitan Islamists in Turkey: rethinking the local in a global era', Center for Global Political Economy Working Papers 04-03, 2004, pp. 17-18.
17. Haldun Gülalp, 'Political Islam in Turkey: the rise and fall of the Refah Party', The Muslim World, 89(1), 1999, p. 29.
18. Ilkay Sunar and Binnaz Toprak, 'Islam in politics: the case of Turkey', Government and Opposition, 18(4), 1983, p. 438.
19. Binnaz Toprak, 'The state, politics and religion in Turkey', in Metin Heper and Ahmet Evin (eds), State, Democracy and the Military: Turkey in the 1980s, De Gruyter, Berlin and New York, 1988, p. 128.
20. Gülalp, 'Globalization and political Islam', op. cit., p. 438.
21. I should note that MÜSİAD is not the only association that represents the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises. For instance, in recent years, the Association of Industrialists and Businessmen (SİAD) was established in Anatolian cities. There are currently 75 SİAD branches, with around 3000 members all over Turkey. For the underlying differences between SİAD, TÜSİAD and MÜSİAD,
22. see Fuat Keyman and Berrin Koyuncu, 'Globalization, alternative modernities and the political economy of Turkey', Review of International Political Economy, 12(1), 2005, pp.107-130.
23. Another association, ASKON (Association of Anatolian Businessmen), was established in 1998, and the number of its member firms has reached around 1900.
24. See Ayşe Buǧra and Osman Savaşkan, 'Yerel Sanayi ve Bugunün Türkiyesi'nde İş Dünyasi{dotless}', Toplum ve Bilim, No. 118, 2010.
25. Filiz Başkan, 'The political economy of Islamic finance in Turkey: the role of Fethullah Gülen and Asya Finans', in Clement M. Henry and Rodney Wilson (eds), The Politics of Islamic Finance, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2004, p. 219.
26. Ziya Öniş, 'The political economy of Islamic resurgence in Turkey: the rise of the Welfare Party in perspective', Third World Quarterly, 8(4), 1997, p. 750.
27. Gümüşçü, op. cit., p. 3.
28. For a detailed analysis of how the globalization process has affected the establishment and expansion of MÜSİAD,
29. see Berrin Koyuncu Lorasdaǧi, 'The relationship between Islam and globalization in Turkey in the post-1990 period: the case of MÜSİAD', Bilig, 52(1), 2010, pp. 105-128.
30. Ömer Bolat, 'Türkiye'den dünyaya uzanan 17 yi{dotless}lli{dotless}k başari{dotless} öyküsü; Model STK MÜSİAD', KOBİEfor Dergisi, September 2007,http://www.MUSIAD.org.tr/MUSIAD_dosya/kobi_efor.doc. (accessed November 2008).
31. Atasoy, op. cit., p. 21;
32. Murat Çokgezen, 'New fragmentations and new cooperations in the Turkish bourgeoisie', Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 18(5), 2000, p. 537.
33. Ayşe Buǧra, ''Labour, capital, and religion: harmony and conflict among the constituency of political Islam in Turkey', Middle Eastern Studies, 38(2), 2002, p. 193.
34. Gümüşçü, op. cit., pp. 5-6;
35. E. Fuat Keyman, 'Modernity, secularism and Islam: the case of Turkey', Theory, Culture and Society, 24(2), 2007, p. 227.
36. Ayşe Buǧra, 'Class, culture, and state: an analysis of interest representation by two Turkish business associations', International Journal of Middle East Studies, 30(4), 1998, pp. 524-525.
37. Çokgezen, op. cit., p. 541.
38. Atasoy, op. cit., pp. 22-23.
39. MÜSİAD members participate in international fairs in cities ranging from Moscow to Damascus, from Tehran and Cairo to Bucharest, Milan, Frankfurt and Cologne.
40. So far, MÜSİAD members have visited a range of countries in Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South-East Asia, the EU, Russia, Ukraine and the USA.
41. Çokgezen, op. cit., p. 540.
42. KOBİ Efor Dergisi/Eylül, 2007.
43. Interview 2, November 2008.
44. Çokgezen, op. cit., p. 538.
45. Öniş and Türem, 'Entrepreneurs, democracy, and citizenship in Turkey', op. cit., p. 44.
46. Buǧra, 'Class, culture, and state', op. cit., p. 529.
47. Buǧra, 'Labour, capital, and religion', op. cit., p. 189.
48. Çokgezen, op. cit., p. 539.
49. Ziya Öniş, 'Political Islam at the crossroads: from hegemony to co-existence', Contemporary Politics, 7(4), 2001, p. 290.
50. Buǧra, 'Labour, capital, and religion', op. cit., pp. 193-194.
51. MÜSİAD, Başbakan N. Erbakan'i{dotless}n Doǧu Asya Gezisi ve MÜSİAD'i{dotless}n Bosna Hersek Gezisi, Istanbul, 1996.
52. Aylin Güney and Filiz Başkan, 'Party dissolutions and democratic consolidation: the Turkish case', South European Society and Politics, 13(3), 2008, pp. 263-281.
53. The NSC, during that period, was composed of the president, the prime minister, the chief of the General Staff, the ministers of justice, national defence, interior, and foreign affairs, and the commanders of the branches of the armed forces and the gendarmerie. This body sets national security policy and coordinates all activities related to mobilization and defence.
54. For an elaboration of the period between the establishment of the coalition government of Refah and TPP to the 27 February 1997 National Security Council meeting,
55. see Metin Heper and Aylin Güney, 'The military and the consolidation of democracy: the recent Turkish experience', Armed Forces and Society, 26(4), 2000, pp. 639-645.
56. Ibid., p. 645.
57. Hürriyet, 17 January 1998.
58. For instance, on 13 April 1994, Erbakan asked Refah's representatives in Parliament to consider whether the change in the social order which the party sought would be 'peaceful or violent' and would be achieved 'harmoniously or by bloodshed'. In another speech on 13 January 1991 in Sivas, Erbakan called on Muslims to join Refah, saying that only his party could establish the supremacy of the Koran through a holy war (jihad) and that Muslims should therefore make donations to Refah rather than distributing alms to third parties. Şevki Yi{dotless}lmaz, a Refah deputy, in public speeches in 1994 said: 'Our mission is not to talk but to implement the war plan as a soldier in the army,. The question Allah will ask you is this: "Why, in the time of the blasphemous regime, did you not work for the construction of an Islamic State?"'
59. Buǧra, 'Class, culture, and state', op. cit., p. 534.
60. Radikal, 20 March 2001.
61. Öniş, 'The political economy', op. cit., p. 221.
62. Interview, January 2009.
63. Öniş, 'Political Islam at the crossroads', op. cit., p. 287.
64. Gümüşçü, op. cit., p. 11.
65. Interview 2, November 2008. Another current AKP deputy and MÜSİAD member, too, underlines the incompatibility of Refah's economic model with the process of globalization. Interview, April 2010.
66. Interview with Erol Yarar, the founding president of MÜSİAD, August 2010.
67. Gümüşçü, op. cit., pp. 13-14.
68. Bayram Ali Soner, 'The Justice and Development Party's policies towards non-Muslim minorities in Turkey', Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 12(1), 2010, p. 23.
69. For an examination of the convergence, especially on economic issues, democratization and decentralization in party programmes of the Motherland Party, the True Path Party, the Democratic Left Party, the Republican People's Party, the Nationalist Action Party, the Virtue Party and the People's Democracy Party,
70. see Ziya Öniş, 'Neoliberal globalization and the democracy paradox: the Turkish general elections of 1999', Journal of International Affairs, 54(1), 2000, pp. 295-299.
71. Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, 'AKP and the paradox of Islamic Europhilia', Turkish Policy Quarterly, 3(1), 2004, p. 67.
72. Turkish Daily News, 8 November 2002.
73. Turkish Daily News, 12 January 2004.
74. Yalçin Akdoǧan, Muhafazakar Demokrasi, Adalet ve Kalki{dotless}nma Partisi, Ankara, 2003.
75. Metin Heper, 'The victory of the Justice and Development Party', Mediterranean Politics, 8(1), 2003, p. 131.
76. Simten Coşar and Aylin Özman, 'Centre-right politics in Turkey after the November 2002 general election: neo-liberalism with a Muslim face', Contemporary Politics, 10(1), 2004, pp. 57-64;
77. Öniş, 'The political economy', op. cit.;
78. Ergun Özbudun, 'From political Islam to conservative democracy: the case of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey', South European Society and Politics, 11(3/4), 2006, pp. 543-557;
79. Ersin Kalaycioǧlu, 'Politics of conservatism in Turkey', Turkish Studies, 8(2), 2007;
80. Fuat Keyman and Ziya Öniş, 'Globalization and social democracy in the European periphery: paradoxes of the Turkish experience', Globalizations, 4(2), 2007, pp. 211-228;
81. Burhanettin Duran, 'The experience of Turkish Islamism between transformation and impoverishment', Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 12(1), 2010, pp. 5-22.
82. AKP's overwhelming success can be attributed to its ability to win the votes of not only conservative businessmen, but also other segments of society.
83. Gümüşçü, op. cit., p. 12.
84. Interview 1, November 2008.
85. Gümüşçü, op. cit., p. 12.
86. AKP party programme.
87. E. Fuat Keyman and Berrin Koyuncu, 'AKP, MÜSİAD, Ekonomik Kalki{dotless}nma ve Modernite', Düşünen Siyaset, 19, 2004, p. 134.
88. Engin Yildirim, 'Labor pains or Achilles' heel: the Justice and Development Party and labor in Turkey', in Hakan M. Yavuz (ed.), The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Parti, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, UT, 2006, p. 253.
89. Zana Çitak and Özlem Tür, 'Women between tradition and change: the Justice and Development Party experience in Turkey', Middleastern Studies, 44(3), 2008, p. 457.
90. Ibid., p. 458.
91. Yusuf Balci{dotless}, 'İslamda Çali{dotless}şma İlkeleri', in H. Şencan (ed.), İş Hayati{dotless}nda İslam İnsani{dotless}, MÜSİAD Yayi{dotless}nlari{dotless}, İstanbul, 1994, p. 116.
92. Buǧra, ''Class, culture, and state', op. cit., p. 533.
93. Buǧra, ''Labour, capital, and religion', op. cit., p. 195.
94. Koyuncu Lorasdaǧi, op. cit., p. 115.
95. Öniş and Türem, 'Business, globalization and democracy', op. cit., p. 102.
96. Koyuncu Lorasdaǧi, op. cit., p. 117;
97. Öniş and Türem, 'Business, globalization and democracy', op. cit., p. 102.
98. Koyuncu Lorasdaǧi, op. cit., p. 118.
99. Koyuncu Lorasdaǧ, op. cit., p. 121;
100. Öniş and Türem, 'Business, globalization and democracy' op. cit., p. 101.
101. Öniş and Türem, 'Entrepreneurs, democracy, and citizenship in Turkey', op. cit., p. 447.
102. Öniş and Türem, ''Business, globalization and democracy', op. cit., p. 100.