The Rise and Fall of Turkey’s Democrat Party: The Cold War and Illiberalism, 1945-60

More than sixty years after Turkey’s Democrat Party was removed from office by a military coup and three of its leaders hanged, it remains controversial. For some, it was the defender of a more democratic political order and founder of a dominant center-right political coalition; for others, it ushered in an era of corruption, religious reaction, and subordination to American influence. This study moves beyond such stark binaries. Reuben Silverman details the party’s establishment, development, rule, and removal from power, showing how its leaders transformed themselves from champions of democracy and liberal economics to advocates of illiberal policies. To understand this change, Silverman draws on periodicals and archival documents to detail the Democrat Party’s continuity with Turkey’s late Ottoman and early republican past as well as the changing nature of the American-led Cold War order in which it actively participated.