Populism, sources of rural domination and resistance in Turkey in the 1970s

Abstract

This study attempts to delineate what "populism" means for rural subjects in 1970s̕ Turkey, especially after the 1974 world recession that has created immense social and economic turbulences in the so-called Third World countries. Investigating sources of domination and several rural resistance practices of petty commodity producers in various parts of the country usually led by socialist movements and parties, I try to argue that the distinctive character of the relationship between populism and development has characterized the short history after the Second World War. Identifying developmentalism as the chief legitimating function of ruling regimes and the most important "reason of state", which conceals social inequalities and contentions, my main contention is to depict how the discourses of development have played a central role in shaping the evolution of these rural resistance practices at the local level. One of the most important ways in which discourses of development have affected the everyday lives of people in rural Turkey is through populist policies and programs. In this study, rather identifying populism as an elite preference to mobilize subaltern classes, we tried to illustrate it as a mode of reproduction both for ruling bloc and subaltern classes with reference to market relations.