The 1948 Economic Congress: an attempt at the political re-organization of the merchants in Turkey

Abstract

This thesis explores the relationship between the state and private entrepreneurs during the period of return to multi-party politics in Turkey. Taking the 1948 Economic Congress of Turkey as its case, and the merchants in Turkey as its main agent, it argues that from the vantage point of merchants, the economic transition to agriculture-led growth was contingent on the class struggle during the said period. The process therefore was not a political rupture but represented a continuity in terms of capital accumulation strategies. 1948 Economic Congress of Turkey in this junction, acted as the forum through which the merchants debated their economic-corporate interests. Using proceedings books, published reports of the congress, newspaper articles by prominent intellectuals, annals of participating chambers and national assembly records, the research revealed that private entrepreneurs had no intention of dismantling the state presence in and over economy but expected the institutional transformation of the relationship between the state and themselves. In addition to their demands of economic rationalization in state apparatus and formation of institutions that would allow them direct channels into economic policy-making processes, merchants demanded the state to act as the collective capitalist by using redistributive policy to promote the intensification and centralization of capital.