Book contents
- Turkey Between Democracy and Authoritarianism
- Turkey Between Democracy and Authoritarianism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps and Tables
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 A Long Wave of Urbanization
- 3 From Military Rule to Civilian Politics
- 4 Islamists in Power
- 5 Uneven Economic Development and Domestic Politics
- 6 The Kurdish Revolt: Nationalism and Ethnicity
- 7 Between Europe and the Middle East
- 8 Women’s Call for Democracy
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - A Long Wave of Urbanization
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2019
- Turkey Between Democracy and Authoritarianism
- Turkey Between Democracy and Authoritarianism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps and Tables
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 A Long Wave of Urbanization
- 3 From Military Rule to Civilian Politics
- 4 Islamists in Power
- 5 Uneven Economic Development and Domestic Politics
- 6 The Kurdish Revolt: Nationalism and Ethnicity
- 7 Between Europe and the Middle East
- 8 Women’s Call for Democracy
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
One way to begin to understand the social, political, and economic changes in Turkey since 1980 is to focus on the rapid urbanization process. As in many other developing countries, Turkey’s population increased rapidly after World War II, and rural-to-urban migration gained momentum. Even though the population growth rate slowed after 1980, rapid urbanization continued. As a result, the share in the total population of those living in urban centers of more than ten thousand people increased from around 18 percent in 1950 to 45 percent in 1980, and to about 80 percent in 2015. Close to two-thirds of the country’s population in 2015 were either the children or grandchildren of migrants to urban areas or migrants themselves. We will argue in this chapter that the migration of tens of millions of people from rural to urban areas put great pressure on Turkey’s emerging democracy and created an opening for the Islamist parties.
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- Turkey between Democracy and Authoritarianism , pp. 28 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019