THE PROCESS OF MODERNIZATION IN IRAN AND TURKEY: THE ERA OF STATE-BUILDING

This dissertation is an inquiry into the process of induced modernization in Iran and Turkey in the period between the beginning of the nineteenth century and the onset of the Second World War. More specifically, this dissertation attempts to describe what the modernization effort involved in each country at a particular time, why such a policy was initiated by the political elite, and what the effects of modernization and reform were on the fortunes of the elite which sponsored them and the possibilities for further advances in modernization in each country in the future. Defining modernization in terms involving radical transformation in social, economic, and political structures of a society, special emphasis is placed on the linkage between socio-economic changes resulting from a policy of induced modernization on the one hand and the ability (or lack thereof) of the political elite and political institutions to adapt themselves to such changes. It is hoped that by comparing and contrasting the modernization process in two countries which have a great deal in common in their cultural heritage, political history, and socio-economic structure, and yet differ sufficiently in their historical circumstances during the period under consideration, a better insight is gained not only into the dynamics of induced modernization in general, but also a better explanation can be given of the specific form which the modernization process took in each of the two countries.;By the early twentieth century, a combination of domestic and foreign factors resulted in the downfall of the Qajar and Ottoman dynasties in Iran and Turkey, respectively, and the proclamation of constitutional regimes in each country. After an interregnum of political upheaval in the post revolutionary era, beginning in the early 1920s, new and stable regimes appeared in the two countries. The modernization policy which was promoted by these regimes was directed not only at state-building but also at nation-building. However, despite many apparent similarities in the state-sponsored modernization effort in Iran and Turkey in the 1920-1940 period, there were fundamental differences between the modernization processes in the two countries, differences which reflected the varying degrees of success achieved in the modernization effort in each country in the previous century and which proved highly significant in their political life during and immediately after the Second World War.;The modernization process began in Iran and Turkey in the early nineteenth century as a defensive response by the indigenous elite to the European political, cultural, and economic penetration. The nature of the European challenge as well as the domestic political conditions varied greatly in the two countries, as did the elite's response to that challenge. However, in both countries, the most prominent feature of the modernization effort during the nineteenth century was the attempt at extending the capabilities of the government through centralization of power and the destruction of the quasi-feudal arrangement which existed previously. Other innovations and modernizing measures were mostly the by-product of the elite's effort at state-building. Despite some measure of success at state-building (particularly in the Ottoman Empire), the centralizing elite's objective of full control of the periphery was far from accomplished in either Ottoman Turkey or Iran by the end of the nineteenth century. In particular, while in the process of modernization many of the old social institutions were weakened or destroyed, the modernizing elite failed to introduce viable new institutions in their place, nor were new bases of legitimacy found to replace the traditional ones which were being undermined as the result of state-sponsored innovations.