Turkey's democracy: A model for the troubled middle east?

摘要

A U.S. political geographer with extensive field experience in Turkey provides insights into Turkey's role as a possible model of secular democracy for Muslim-majority states. More specifically, the author addresses the question of whether Turkey has successfully incorporated political Islam into a secular state structure (and more fundamentally the relationship between secularism and Islamism in Turkey) and discusses two axes of contention in the country's domestic politics. These involve questions of "who are the democrats"- i.e., tensions between Turkey's ruling Islamist political party AKP and secularist parties and forces (the military)-and "who is the middle class"-i.e., challenges stemming from the juxtaposition of secular and Islamist middle class lifestyles. She concludes by arguing that economic change and complex lifestyle politics are central to an understanding of modern Turkey.