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American Political Science Association and Cambridge University Press are collaborating with
JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PS: Political Science and Politics
The discipline
owes of to
its origins political science
the nineteenth
century in many countries. Often the
The Turkish Political Science Association
discourse on the theory and practice
of politics preceded the formal T he Turkish Political Science Association was
institutionalization of the discipline. established at the Faculty of Political Science in
Turkey is no exception. A quick Ankara in 1963. Reflecting the initial prevalence of
glance at the emergence of political the Faculty of Political Science in Ankara in the
science in the West reveals that discipline, it continued to be an Ankara-based
political science has grown out of organization until its headquarters were moved to
moral philosophy in the Anglo-Saxon Istanbul in 2001. Currently, the headquarters of the
world and out of the discipline of lawAssociation is located at Istanbul Bilgi University.
in much of continental Europe. From TheaAssociation initiated its first graduate student
historical perspective, the develop-convention in political science in October 2003 TPSA President liter Turan
ment of Turkish political science hasand plans to develop this event into an annual
activity. The TPSA, since its founding, has been an active member of the
followed the latter path. In particular,
the influence of France has been of International Political Science Association. Four Turkish scholars, Yavuz
paramount significance. Since the era Abadan, Nermin Abadan, Ergun Ozbudun, and, currently, Ilter Turan
of reforms in the mid-nineteenth have served on IPSA's Executive Committee. In cooperation with the
century, Turkish bureaucrats and World International Studies Conference (WISC), a consortium of Interna-
intellectuals in France enjoyed a tional Studies Associations, the TPSA will host the first WISC World
growing presence. The Ottoman Meeting in Istanbul, August 24-27, 2005.
modernizing elite, above all, took after
the French model. Among the French
institutions copied was the Ecole after a genuine constitutional monarchy The founding of the Republic in
Libre des Sciences Politiques (1871) was established in the Ottoman Empire 1923 did not lead to the immediate
established by Emile Boutmy (Mardin in 1908-by Babanzade Ysmail Hakky flourishing of political science in
1983, 94-5). The Ottoman response to contain references to political science Turkey. During the one-party era
the French institution was the (Babanzade Ysmail Hakk? 1909-1910, (1923-1945), the overarching concern
adaptation of the Ecole's program to7). By the 1910s, the evidence suggests was to secure, maintain, and perpetu-
the Miilkiye, the School of Adminis-that professors knew not just about the ate the republican regime. The
tration opened in 1859 in Istanbul French concept of "science politique" Turkish Republic implemented a
(?ankaya 1954, 34). The purpose of but also the German concepts of dramatic overhaul of Ottoman institu-
the Miilkiye was to educate knowl- "Staatslehre" and "Staatswissenschaft." tions. Educating and socializing the
edgable high- or middle-ranking The Ottoman professors of law were masses into the modernist, Westernist
bureaucrats (qankaya 62-3; Turan also familiar with the Allgemeine regime became the major goal. To
Staatslehre literature, especially with
1997, 186-7). Although the curriculum achieve this, the republicans gave the
did not include a course with the title, the work of Johann Kaspar Bluntschli. highest priority to educating a loyal
we can observe one of the earliest In rejecting Bluntschli's general republican elite. As the founders of
references to the term "political approach to politics, Babanzade Ysmail
the republic consolidated their power
science" in the budget expense Hakk4, nevertheless, agreed with his during the initial years, Turkish
document of the Miilkiye dated 23 definition that identifies political politics entered a new stage where
science
February 1877 (see ?ankaya 1968-9, I, as "science of the state" ideological mobilization by elite
126). (Babanzade Ysmail Hakk4 1909-1910,initiative became even more impor-
Put briefly, the Miilkiye was the 7). This outlook is not consistently tant. One result of this effort was the
central institution for the transfer of shared by other professors of law at the
closing of the Dartilfiinun (the
discourse on political science from Miilkiye or the Darilfiinun. However,traditional
it institution of higher
continental Europe to the declining displays an interesting historical learning) and the opening of Istanbul
Ottoman state. Textbooks of promi- parallel with the history of AmericanUniversity in 1933. The new univer-
nent law professors of the Miilkiye political science, which was also sity was, as then-Minister of Educa-
tion RePit Galip put it, to be one of the
and later also the Dariilfiinun (prede- perceived as the science of the state for
cessor of Istanbul University) reveal a good part of the nineteenth and early "spearheads" of the Turkish Reform
that professors were well aware of thetwentieth century under the influence (Arslan
of 1995, 359). Still the refur-
idea of a science of politics. The first Francis Lieber, Theodore Woolsey, bished university-the only one in
constitutional law textbooks-written Westel Willoughby, and John Burgess. Turkey at the time-did not have a
Faculty of Economics of Istanbul University, the Faculty of Economics and The transmission of European
Administrative Sciences of the Middle East Technical University and of political science discourse into
Bodaziri University, among others. In 1982, the military committee that Turkey received a momentum jump in
had assumed power in 1980 engaged in a major reorganization of the 1937 with the publication of the
university system. The military leadership was not so much motivated by translation of Fritz Fleiner's confer-
improving the system of education as by devising a system that would ence in Zurich on 26 November 1916,
bring the universities under closer scrutiny of the central government and entitled "Politik als Wissenschaft"
to insure that the universities would no longer function as "hotbeds of [Politics as a Science]. It is interesting
political radicalism." A standard organizational model placed all to note that unlike Fleiner's, Max
universities under the tutelage of a new central organ named the Weber's famous conference delivered
Higher Education Council. In the model, economics, business administra- three years later entitled "Politics As
tion and political science were lumped under an administrative unit a Vocation" did not become as highly
called the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. With a acclaimed and referred to by Turkish
mindset geared to professional schools, the generals found the idea of academics of the period. The earliest
a degree in an area such as political science, for which no correspond- authentic Turkish contribution to
ing profession could be identified in working life, highly problematical. political science discourse had to wait
As a result, the existing departments were converted/divided into one of until 1940. Hasan Ptikrti Adal's article
two departments-public administration and international relations-or entitled "Political Sciences: Its Subject
both. Any university that had a faculty of economics and administrative Matter and Method" (1940) and Nihat
sciences was ordered to establish these two departments within those Erim's article entitled "The Concept of
faculties. Politics" (1943) are the earliest forays
Since 1982, both the number of universities and the departments of of Turkish academics into political
public administration and international relations have registered impres- science in a self-conscious manner.
sive growth. There are 81 universities in Turkey at the time of this writing Still, the common point was the lack of
and 51 of those have either a department of PA or IR or both. A total of consensus on whether there was a
12,000 undergraduate students are enrolled in these institutions during science of politics. Adal believed that
the 2003-2004 academic year. Thirty-eight of these universities also unless "the realm of politics" is
have M.A.- or M.P.A.-level graduate programs, while 11 offer Ph.D.s in considered to be an "independent realm
one or both areas. There are a total of 2,623 graduate students, of of knowledge," politics cannot be a
which 580 are pursuing Ph.D.s, 417 in PA and 163 in IR. There are science (Adal 1940, 438). Erim's article
additional programs in European Union studies that also attract students was not clear on this point, either. He
whose interests fall within the domain of political science. The institutions referred to politics as "the art of
with Ph.D. Programs include Ankara, Bilkent (Ankara) Cumhuriyet administering a state," as "the science
(Sivas), Dokuz Eylil (Yzmir), Gazi (Ankara), Hacettepe (Ankara), Istanbul, of administering a state," and finally as
Marmara (Istanbul), Middle East Technical (Ankara), Sakarya the collection of unconventional
(Adapazari), and UludaO (Bursa) universities. The numbers are likely to methods and "intrigue" to capture
increase in the future. power (Erim 1943, 153, 211, 289). At
any rate, both Adal and Erim, the
Notes
Ankara University on 23 March 1950. Pemsettin
1. On the institutionalist origins of Turkish 3. We must also mention the introduction of
political science, see Erozan, "An Interpretive
Ginaltay, the prime minister at the time, noted in comparative government and international
Approach to the History of Political Science,"
the bill (dated 20 May 1949) to the Parliament thatrelations into the Turkish audience by Ttirkkaya
European Political Science, spring 2004. the incorporation would provide Ankara University Ata6v (1960), Bahri Savc y (1961), and Yavuz
2. The School of Political Sciences became a with a Faculty "that offers instruction in political Abadan (1962) in the Ankara University Faculty
Faculty incorporated to the newly-established and state sciences" (1ankaya 1954, 236-7). of Political Sciences Journal.
Dergisi 17 (September-December): Ataiv, Ttirkkaya. 1960. "Milletlerarasy Karar Defteri [Minutes of the Executive
175-220. Mfinasebetler Nedir ve Universitelerde Nas l Committee of the Turkish Political
.1966. Anayasa Hukuku ve Siyasal Okutulabilir?" [What is International Science Association]. 1973 onwards.
Relations and How to Teach it at Unpublished Manuscript.
Bilimler AgCs'ndan 1965
Segimlerinin Tahlili [The Analysis of 1965 Universities?]. Ankara Universitesi Siyasal Kdymen, Nusret. 1936. "Kemalizm ve
Elections from the Perspective of Bilgiler Fakiltesi Dergisi 15 (June): 181- Politika Bilgisi" [Kemalism and Political
Constitutional Law and Political Sciences]. 202. Knowledge]. Ulkii 7 (July): 321-4.
Ankara: Ankara Universitesi Siyasal 1967. "Uluslararas' Siyasal 'limler Mardin, Perif. 1983. Jn Tiirklerin Siyasi
Bilgiler Fakilltesi Yayynlary. Derne6i Dtinya Kongresi" [The World Fikirleri, 1895-1908 [Political Ideas of
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Bilgiler Fakiltesi Dergisi 23 (2): 303- Dergisi 22 (2): 327-346. Kalaycyoilu, and Ylter Turan. 1988.
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