Türkiye From The Perspective of the Theory of Pillarization

Abstract

The Netherlands has had a rich theoretical array of instruments to view and understand societal matters. One of the first theoretical instruments is ‘pillarization’ also called verzuiling (Van Doorn 1956) in the Dutch language. A second theoretical instruments is ‘consociationalism’ that was developed by Arend Lijphart (Lijphart 2008) applying the idea of pillarization to all societies in a generic sense. Then a third related concept in this array of theories is ‘corporatism’ (De Grauwe 1977) that has had a strong influence in the Dutch political culture. All three concepts are characteristic for the Dutch political historical development. Although they may sometimes be used interchangeably, all three concepts are interrelated but not the same (Wintle 2000). All three instruments have played important roles in the social-historical processes in the emancipation of minority groups and in the building of a national identity (Miert 1992). The three concepts consociation, pillarization and corporatism have been important in public life. This article views all three concepts by viewing the Dutch history and looks into the Turkish socio-political processes today. The argumentation of this paper is that at least two of three concepts will apply to the Turkish public, political life and culture. I argue that the Turkish situation can also be characterised by the concept of vertical pluralism that was followed by a reversed process called depillarization (ontzuiling) in the Dutch language. This depillarization efforts can be seen in the way political parties seek coalition and consensus in multiple forms as is the case with the Cumhur ittifakı and the six partner formations (altılı masa formasyonu).