Abstract
During the last decade the agenda of local and global politics is heavily marked by the encounter of two powerful currents, namely democracy and political Islam. On the one hand Islam as a religion itself is facing a cultural dialectic between a modern and an authentic form, producing a synthesis which is only to be criticized again by a new radical antithesis. Within that framework political Islam is perceived to be a tool for this current antithesis, attacking the states for impiety and materialism. Democracy, on the other hand, is becoming dominant as a criterion of good government, the “only game in town”, with its inherent complexity which reveals itself in each particular context. The two currents are not necessarily irreconcilable, but they produce a number of different effects on each other whenever they meet. The fundamental contention of this article is to demonstrate this relationship within the Turkish setting.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bayramoğlu, A. (2006). Çağdaşlık Hurafe Kaldırmaz. İstanbul: Tesev Yayınları.
Beinin, J., & Stork, J. (1997). Political Islam: Essays from middle east report. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bellah, R. N. (1991). The good society. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Bulaç, A. (2001). Din, Devlet ve Demokrasi (religion, state and democracy). Istanbul: Zaman Kitap.
Çaha, Ö. (1999). İslam ve democracy. Islamiyat, 22(2), 53–77.
Çaha, Ö., & Aras, B. (2000). Fethullah Gulen and his liberal Turkish Islam movement. Middle East Review of International Affairs, 4(4), 30–42.
Çarkoğlu, A., & Toprak, B. (2006). Değişen Türkiye’de Din, Toplum ve Siyaset (religion, society and politics in Turkey). İstanbul: TESEV.
Casanova, J. (1994). Public religions in the modern world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Doh Chull, S., & Huoyan, S. (1997). Political ambivalence in South Korea and Taiwan1997. Journal of Democracy, 8(3), 109–124. doi:10.1353/jod.1997.0050.
Eickelman, D. F., & Piscatori, J. (1996). Muslim politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.
Entelis, J. (1997). Islam, democracy, and the state in North Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Epstein, B. (1991). Political protest and cultural revolution: Nonviolent direct action in the 1970s and 1980s. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Esmer, Y. (1999). Devrim, Evrim, Statüko: Türkiye’de Sosyal Siyasal Ekonomik Değerler [revolution, evolution and status-quo: Social, political and economic values in Turkey]. İstanbul: TESEV.
Esposito, J. L., & Voll, J. O. (1996). Islam and democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Filali-Ansary, A. (2003). Muslims and democracy. In L. Diamond, M. F. Plattner, & D. Brumberg (Eds.), Islam and democracy in middle east (pp. 193–207). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Fukuyama, F. (1992). The end of history and the last man. New York: Avon.
Göle, N. (1996). The forbidden modern: Civilization and veiling. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Göle, N. (1997). Secularism and Islamism in Turkey: The making of elites and counter-elites. The Middle East Journal, 51(1), 46–58.
Gorski, P., & Altınordu, A. (2008). After secularization? Annual Review of Sociology, 34, 4.1–4.31.
Heper, M., & Toktaş, Ş. (2003). Islam, modernity, and democracy in contemporary Turkey: The case of recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Muslim World, 93(2), 157–185. doi:10.1111/1478-1913.00019.
Hughes, J. (1995). Understanding classical sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Huntington, S. P. (1984). Will more countries become democratic? Political Science Quarterly, 99(2), 193–218. doi:10.2307/2150402.
Huntington, S. (1991). Democracies: Third wave. Journal of Democracy, 2(1), 12–34.
Jamal, A. A. (2006). Reassessing support for Islam and democracy in the Arab world? World Affairs, 169(2), 51–63. doi:10.3200/WAFS.169.2.51-63.
Kanra, B. (2005). Democracy, Islam and dialogue: The case of Turkey. Government and Opposition, 40(4), 515–539. doi:10.1111/j.1477-7053.2005.00163.x.
Kepel, G. (2003). Jihad: the trail of political Islam. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Keyman, F. (2007). Modernity, secularism and Islam: The case of Turkey. Theory, Culture & Society, 24(2), 215–234. doi:10.1177/0263276407075008.
Lagos, M. (1997). Latin America’s smiling mask. Journal of Democracy, 8(3), 125–134. doi:10.1353/jod.1997.0042.
Levine, D. H., & Mainwaring, S. (1986). Religion and popular protest in Latin America. In Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame.
Lichterman, P. R. (1996). The search for political community: American activists reinventing commitment. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lipset, S. M. (1994). The social requisites of democracy revisited. American Sociological Review, 59(1), 23–45.
Mahmood, S. (2005). Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Marradi, A. (1981). Factor analysis as an aid in the formulation and refinement of empirically useful concepts. In E. F. Borgatta & D. J. Jackson (Eds.), Factor analysis and measurement in sociological research (pp. 17–18). London: Sage.
Mattes, R., & Thiel, H. (1998). ‘Consolidation and public opinion in South Africa. Journal of Democracy, 9(1), 95–110. doi:10.1353/jod.1998.0010.
McAdam, D. (1982). Political process and the development of black insurgency, 1930–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Morris, A. D. (1984). The origins of the civil rights movement: Black communities organizing for change. New York: Free Press.
Pals, D. (1996). Seven theories of religion. New York: Oxford University Press.
Pridhman, G. (1995). The international context of democratic consolidation: Southern Europe in comparative perspective. In R. Gunter, P. Diamandaurus, & H. Puhle (Eds.), The politics of democratic consolidation: Southern Europe in comparative perspective (p. 169). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Roy, O. (2004). Globalized Islam: The search for a new Ummah. New York: Columbia University Press.
Smith, C. (1991). The emergence of liberation theology: Radical religion and social movement theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Swidler, A. (1986). Culture in action:symbols and strategies. American Sociological Review, 51, 273–286. doi:10.2307/2095521.
Tessler, M. (2002). Islam and democracy in the middle east: The impact of religious orientations on attitudes toward democracy in four Arab countries. Comparative Politics, 34(3), 337–354. doi:10.2307/4146957.
Tessler, M., & Altınoğlu, E. (2004). Political culture in Turkey: Connections among attitudes toward democracy, the military and Islam. Democratization, 11(1), 21–50. doi:10.1080/13510340412331294122.
Uyanık, M. (2001). Islam Siyaset Felsefesinde Sivil Itaatsizlik (civil disobedience in political Islam). Istanbul: Kaktüs.
Verba, S., Schlozman, K. L., & Brady, H. E. (1995). Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wildavsky, A. (1987). Choosing preferences by constructing institutions: a cultural theory of preference formation. The American Political Science Review, 81, 3–21. doi:10.2307/1960776.
Williams, R. H. (1995). Constructing the public good: Social movements and cultural resources. Social Problems, 42(1), 124–144. doi:10.1525/sp.1995.42.1.03x0458p.
Zald, M. N., & McCarthy, J. D. (1987). Social movements in an organizational society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
Zartman, W. (1992). Democracy and Islam: The cultural dialectic. Annals, of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 524(1), 181–191.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Toros, E. The Relationship Between Islam and Democracy in Turkey: Employing Political Culture as an Indicator. Soc Indic Res 95, 253–265 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9458-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9458-1