Disengagement From Traditionalism in Turkey and Iran

Abstract

CENTRAL FEATURE of political development in the Middle East has been the progressive disengagement of the polity from the influence of Islamic traditionalism. Since Islam is at once a religion, a polity, and a total way of life, a corollary aspect of this development has been the necessity of continually redefining the relationship between Islam and society. At the same time, the polity, under the influence of a secularly oriented nationalism, has assumed responsibility for introducing widespread social and economic reform as part of a drive to modernize society. Because Islam cannot be relegated to some unobtrusive corner of society, the result has been the displacement, rather than the transformation, of the ideological themes furnished by Islam with others presumed to be more compatible with contemporary needs. In view of the fact that Islam, especially folk-Islam, is so deeply entrenched in village life, disengagement of the modernized polity from the tradition-bound sectors has invariably meant, in practice, that the government is alienated from the bulk of the population. Where this alienation is incomplete, the capacity of the polity to implement significant political, economic, and social reform is limited. It is the purpose of this paper to trace the political development of Turkey and Iran in order to outline how effective disengagement of the polity from the influence of traditionalism has been realized only when the democratic themes espoused by the national movement in each country have not found reflection in political reality. Paradoxically, authoritarianism, in turn, has been an effective method of government for introducing reform in each country only when its legitimacy has been denied in theory.