The Central Legislative Councils in the Nineteenth Century Ottoman Reform Movement Before 1876

Abstract

When the Ottoman Parliament was first elected and organized in 1876–8, surprised Europeans tended to assume that this institution was a direct result of European example and European pressure. Indeed, from that day to the present, it has been assumed that this was, in fact, the first Ottoman parliament, the first Ottoman effort at representative government, and the first experiment at involving the subjects of the Sultan in the process of rule, traditionally restricted only to members of his Ruling Class. Yet in fact this Parliament was the culmination of a century-long process of change which had been taking place in the Ottoman body politic since the early years of Sultan Selim III (1789–1807). It might well be argued that if the Parliament of 1876–8 was a failure, it was because of the failure of those who constructed it to rely sufficiently on this previous experience in representative government and legislation instead of simply imitating the European example. The representative legislative and executive institutions developed by the nineteenth century Ottoman reformers on the provincial and local levels will be discussed in a separate study. It is the object of this article to describe the same development in the central Ottoman government during the period of the Tanzimat (1839–76), to provide additional background for subsequent studies of the fate of Ottoman constitutionalism in the years which followed.