Political Economy of Development and Democracy in Turkeyduring Turgut Ozal (1983-1993)

The experience of political and economic transformation in Turkey during Ozal's rule was due to economic and political liberalization. Accordingly, understanding the relationship between economic prosperity and political development in this period is the driving force to the Turkish experience in recent years. The study of such a relationship becomes even more important with the beginning of Ozal's premiership in 1983, when economic development emerged as the “Turkish miracle” and political development as the “pro-democratic wave”. Historically, Turkey has witnessed two stages in the development process during the 1924-1993. Thus, with the domination of left-wing parties and ideas, especially the People's Republican Party, during the 1924-1983, economic growth and development in Turkey was unbalanced. Despite a multi-party system alongside military governments during this period, Turkey has not experienced lasting economic and political stability. But under Ozal's administration, in addition to relatively stable economic growth, Turkey witnessed the promotion of democratic standards and relative political stability. In fact, Turkey experienced three republican governments in the twentieth century, during which the government was divided four times between dictatorial systems and democracy. Thus, the rule of Generals and dictatorships (1924-1950), the quasi-democratic government (1950-1960), the rule of Generals and the military (1960-1983), and the establishment of a democratic government (1983-1993) were the dominant political order. In parallel with this political arrangement, economic growth and development in Turkey has been also shocked. Thus, despite the independence war and the problems resulting from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (1938-1924), the economic trend in Turkey, with the exception of the Great Depression (1930-1933), was somewhat balanced. But during the reign of Ismet Inonu (1938) until the intervention of military forces in politics (1960), Turkey has witnessed an economic catastrophe. After the return of troops to the barracks during 1963-1973, Turkey experienced relative economic growth for eleven years. However, the rise of the era of instability and terror (1980-1974) brought the Turkish economy to the brink of crisis. Finally, the rise of Ozal to power in the 1980s brought a period of economic prosperity to Turkey. By analyzing the trend of development in Turkey during the Ozal’s era, it will be clear that economic and political development was stable. In this period, Kenan Evern as president and Ozal as prime minister were the main actors in Turkish politics until 1989. But Ozal's presidency in 1989, however, coincided with the beginning of the Third Republic in Turkey. Studying Ozal’s administration shows double simultaneous stages of “political-economic development with economic priority and economic pragmatism (1989-1989)” and “political-economic development with the priority of democracy and political reformism (1989-1993)”. The end of seven different periods of rule, from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the republic to the transition to an elected government and democracy in the Ozal era, can once again reflect the relationship between economic and political growth and development. During the Ozal era, the trend of economic indicators was upward. This trend followed the implementation of strategic policies of economic stabilization, the employment of extroverted logic, and developmental foreign policy. Moreover, the Turkish economy has emerged from its precarious and fragile position and experienced stability. Furthermore, political development was accompanied with the same trend in this period. So, Not only the freedom of the media and press increased, but political parties were encouraged to operate more freely and competitively. The parliamentary system emerged from a priori dysfunction, and a growing civil society emerged as well. Hence, by paying considerable attention to the Turkish development, the main question is what is the relationship between economic prosperity and political development of Turkey during the 1983-1993? The main idea of the current paper is that economic growth has been relied on the relative progress of the indicators of democratization and political development. Turkey's experience of economic and political development shows that economic development without democracy has been fragile and unstable. Seventy Years of development in Turkey (1993-1924) shows that although authoritarian military rule suppressed dissent and political obstruction, and elected government, despite political instability and economic crises, laid the groundwork for a relative economic rise before the reign of Turgut Ozal, But the fragility and instability of this process made it more harmful than beneficial for Turkey. Finally, despite the short period of Ozal's rule (1993-1993) compared to previous periods, the trend of economic growth and development during the Turgut Ozal era was not only progressive and stable, but also the stability of its economic development was higher than the previous periods.