Kemalism and Populism

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the trajectory of populism/halkçilik, one of the least studied principles of Kemalism, from its origins in the ideas of Enlightenment to its practices in modern Turkey. Unlike its commonly perceived negative connotation that is often associated with irrational political objectives, populism is a manifestation of equality premise of Enlightenment. Populism gained popularity among the nineteenth-century American and Russian farmers as well as fin de siècle French intellectuals and politicians. Neither the Russian Narodnik movement nor the American Populist Party were as influential as the French solidarists who were backed by Vatican to carve a middle path between unrefined Capitalism and revolutionary Marxism. Inspired by its earlier counterparts in France and Russia, Kemalist principle of Populism aimed to end inherited socio-economic inequalities that had existed in the former Ottoman Empire. While modern Turkey curbed some inequalities, it has stumbled upon the same core obstacle, unequal distribution of resources. The never-ending human fight for equality will carry on whether it carries the banner of Kemalism or any other ideology.