1 - A Nation Votes

Summary

Chapter 1 examines the immediate aftermath of Turkey’s 1950 elections, tracing the way both of the country’s major political parties incorporated democracy into their historical narratives and modernizing ambitions. The Democratic Party (DP), for its part, sought to convince voters that democracy would enable them to more effectively realize the populist and materialist promise of Kemalist modernization. Finding itself in opposition for the first time since the country’s founding, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) sought to take credit for the advent of democracy, while also embracing democratic ideals in their criticism of the DP. In doing so, they opened an ongoing debate about which Kemalist-era reforms the Turkish people had truly accepted.