A Comparative Analysis of Democratization in Turkey and Iran: A Case Study of the First Wave of Authoritarianism (1906-1913)

This study compares democratization in Iran and Turkey during the periods from 1906 to 1913.  We show that Iranian and Ottoman society experienced the wave of democratization in 1906 and 1908 respectively. We argue that although Iran and Turkey established some fundamental requirements of democratic system such as parliamentary election, Majlis and constitutional law, after a very short time, the countries returned to authoritarianism. Our argument is that the dynamics of the authoritarianism revolve around strategic interactions between the military actors and political elites in the regime and the foreign powers. The strategic choices made by these groups determined the main process of the authoritarianism. This study uses comparative historical analysis. Methodologically,the comparative historical analysis focuses on both historically interpretive and causally analytic.The findings indicate  that the return to authoritarianism in Iran  and Tukey is a result of the combination of three causal conditions,  the suppressive strategy of political actors such as  the dissolution of parliament or the dissolution of opposition parties and the military intervention in politics (military coup or martial law or military suppression: kill or arrest) and  the political-military intervention of  foreign actors in domestic politics such as support for the authoritarian regime or the dissolution of parliament or the suppression of internal actors:kill or arrest.