Review: The Modernization of Turkey
| Author | Ozay Mehmet |
| Date | 01 September 1984 |
| Published date | 01 September 1984 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208403900318 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
692
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
THE
MODERNIZATION
OF
TURKEY
From
Ataturk
to
the
present
day
Walter
F.
Weiker
New York:
Holmes
&
Meier,
1981,
XX,
303pp,
US$37.50
In recent
years
several books
have
been
published
by
Western
schol-
ars
on
Turkish
history,
politics,
and
development.'
There
are
several
reasons
for
this
phenomenon,
ranging
from
strategic/military
con-
siderations,
especially
in
the
wake
of
the turmoil
in
Iran,
Afghanistan,
and
elsewhere
in
the
Middle
East
to
the
problems
of
internal
instabil-
ity
in
Turkey
itself
since
the mid-1
9
7o's.
In
addition,
Turkey
offers
a
rather
unique
opportunity
for
students
of
development
studies
be-
cause,
arguably,
it
represents
the
first
'developing' country that
adopted
the
Western model
of
development
some
sixty
years ago.
The
book
under
review
must,
therefore,
be
judged
in
relation
to
these
other
studies,
in
particular
to
Hale's
book
which
also
offers
a
comprehensive
assessment
of
Turkish
development
since
1923.
The
relative
merit
of
Weiker's
book
lies
in
its
focus
on
political
and
social
development.
There
is
but
one
chapter
on
economic
development
which,
while
containing
statistical
tables
on
production,
trade,
fi-
nance,
and
infrastructure,
ignores
such
important
topics
as
income
distribution,
unemployment,
and
poverty.
In
this
respect,
Hale's
study
is
clearly
superior.
Weiker's
study
of
Turkish
political
and
social
development
is
based
on
a
strong, but
unstated,
assumption
that
such
development
can
be
evaluated
by
quantitative
yardsticks
and
criteria.
There
are
ex-
tensive statistical
tables
relating
to
voting
patterns
and
the
social
back-
grounds
of
political
and
military
leaders
as
well
as
to
the
usual
social
and
economic
indicators.
Such
a
high
degree
of
reliance
on statistical
data
is
questionable,
not
only
because
it
overlooks
the
basic
weak-
nesses
in
the
data
sources
but
also
because
in
periods
of
rapid
struc-
i
Stanford
J.
Shaw,
History
oftthe
Ottoman
Empire
and
Modern
Turkey,
volume
i
(Cam-
bridge:
Cambridge
University
Press
1976);
StanfordJ.
Shaw
and
Ezel
K.
Shaw,
History
of
the
Ottoman
Empire
and
Modern
Turkey,
volume
2
(Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press
1977);
C.H. Dodd,
Democracy
and
Development
in
Turkey
(Walking-
ton: Eothen
Press
i98o);
William
Hale,
The
Political
and
Economic
Development
of
Modern
Turkey
(London: Croom
Helm
1981).
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