Disciples of the State? Historical Legacies and State Control of Social Discipline in Turkey and Greece

Abstract

Through a detailed case study of late Ottoman and early Republican Turkey, this paper presents an argument for why Mustafa Kemal’s founding regime was able to assert control over institutions of social discipline so decisively in the 1920s. The argument is built around an understanding of two historical legacies that had a substantial impact on founding regimes’ ability to consolidate state control throughout the former Ottoman World: 1) the “deep” cultural legacy of Ottoman administration via the millet system; and 2) the more immediate institutional legacy of early modernizing reforms. I question the prevailing assumption that Turkey’s process of modernization and secularization was unique to the region. Instead of juxtaposing the Turkish case against failed attempts at secularization and state centralization in the Muslim majority countries to its east, I argue that a relevant comparative case exhibiting similar dynamics can be found by looking west. Through a brief and stylized comparative case study of modernizing reforms in 19th century Greece, I highlight a number of generalizable conclusions about the conditions necessary for the successful state consolidation of institutions of social discipline in the former Ottoman world.