Elite perceptions of land reform in early Republican Turkey
Journal of Peasant Studies, cilt.27, sa.3, ss.115-141, 2000 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 27 Sayı: 3
- Basım Tarihi: 2000
- Doi Numarası: 10.1080/03066150008438742
- Dergi Adı: Journal of Peasant Studies
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.115-141
- Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This article focuses on the land reform attempts of the single-party regime in Turkey of the mid-1930s through the mid-1940s, culminating in the reform Law of 1945. Why the Turkish ruling elite wanted a land reform is still not adequately understood, and there are a number of controversial and often contradictory interpretations. The thesis here is that despite mainstream approaches to the issue in Turkish historiography, the land reform attempts during the single-party era should be seen as part of the Kemalist project of conservative modernisation. The article argues that a variety of concerns were important in shaping the Turkish elite's thinking on land reform, including an ideology of peasantism combined with a fear of rural unrest (from sharecroppers, agricultural laborers and landless and land-poor peasants); a fear also of urbanisation, proletarianisation and socialist ideas; a desire to strengthen Republican nationalist ideology in the countryside as a basis of regime support (with a particular emphasis on the Kurdish issue). The conclusion presents an interpretation of the Turkish land reform that connects the long- and short-term causes of the land reform Law of 1945.