Modernization

One of the most brilliant examples of modernization in modern world is Turkey. As far as Turkey is concerned, social change on behalf of the modernization has not completed yet. Turkey is a sampler of Western modernization although it continues to indicate the very characteristics of its own. Modernization process involves economic -at the basic level-, political and cultural-social changes in the general fabric of society. Social change, generally speaking, is conditioned by the economic, political and cultural “structuration” of the society and it also conditions these dimensions. A dialectical relationship is logically obvious. However, there occur some “ill” developments in the process of modernization in non-Western countries as in the case of Turkey. The fact that social change is both created by and also creates sick sides in the way of modernization can be seen in the urbanization process in Turkey in a clear way. This fact is explained by “core-periphery” paradigm. What does this paradigm assume? As some argue any reform movement in Turkey is imposed from the top. The carrier of modernization, namely military-bureaucratic elite of the core, tries to transform backward elements in the periphery. Intentional policies of migration, from rural to urban, are such a phenomenon.

However, recent discussions cover issues like why the proletarianization of peasants could not be completed throughout such a long period. Cities, urban areas, are where elements of social change are most visible. Nevertheless, urbanization way of Turkey is not following a western pattern. Informal sector in the urban is an ill condition for a modern capitalist economy. All these, at the end, make any assessment about political representation seem blurry, incomplete and lacking.