Global Free Trade and the Fragmentation of Capitalist Classes: An Uneven and Combined Development Approach to MUSIAD in Turkey

Abstract

“A small group of young Turkish patriots who have fallen in love with their country have laid the foundation of MUSIAD 30 years ago”. This passage has been taken from the official Twitter account of MUSIAD whose categorisation has always been a contested issue. MUSIAD has been called the “Anatolian Capital”, “Muslim Bourgeoisie”, “Devout Bourgeoisie”, and finally “patriots who have fall in love with their country”. The uniqueness of this study lays in its class-based approach to the MUSIAD affiliates, as it argues that MUSIAD is composed of three main class fractions which are nationally oriented, internationally oriented and transnational. This categorisation is based on the ways in which MUSIAD affiliates engage in social relations of production rather than matters of religion, culture, and ideology. Subsequently, this study argues that the rise of MUSIAD is part of a process of transformation in the patterns of capital accumulation and uneven development of capitalism in Turkey. Accordingly, this study draws on the uneven and combined development approach to understand why MUSIAD affiliates could not catch up with TUSIAD affiliated companies which mostly represent the transnational fraction of Turkish capital.