The new middle class as a progressive urban coalition: the 1960 coup d’etat in Turkey

Abstract:

The 1960 coup d'etat in Turkey was a 'progressive' attempt on the part of a 'new middle class' to continue the reforms that had retrogressed during the conservative Democrat Party (Demokrat Parti, DP) reign. This 'progressive' reformist stratum was not the counterpart of the classic western industrial bourgeois class that promoted the interests of the entire society while working for the advancement of capitalism. As Halpern indicates, this 'new middle class' was composed of managerial bureaucrats, army officials and the intelligentsia who had little connection with relations of property. Hence, the 1960s transformation in Turkey was 'engineered' by the coalition of a new urban progressive group. Within this progressive coalition (the 'new middle class' as defined by Halpern), the interests of the army, the intellectuals and the manufacturing bourgeoisie, focusing on the concepts of 'progress' and 'modernization', seemingly became one and the same for a unique period in Turkey's history. Nevertheless, the intellectuals and the manufacturing bourgeoisie interpreted the 'progressive' nature of the coup differently, and while the former saw it as a socialist transformation, the latter believed it to represent the advancement of capitalism in Turkey. This conflict made itself apparent in the drafting of the new Constitution, which ultimately reflected both the 'collectivist' and the 'liberal' outlooks.