This study focuses on the Welfare Party elite's conceptualisation of modernity during the party's last 4-5 years before its closure in 1998. Since the party was the most important Islamist organisation in Turkey. it was at an important point of interaction between Islamism and modernity. The study tries to determine the significance of the WP discourse on key modernisation issues by answering such questions as how the WP elite conceptualised modernity; how this conceptualisation was formulated, constructed and what was modernity's relationship with the West in their view. It argues that, the WP elite had a distinct (Islamist) understanding of modernity which, despite its differences in its approach to some basic issues (e. g. secularism) overall remained within modernity by sharing most of its major characteristics. The WP elite, similar to many other Islamist movements, advocated a more Islamic (less secular and less Westernising) route to modernity; and they could not be considered as anti-modernists. The study contributes towards a better understanding of the critical role that a version of Islamism plays in Turkey's politics and process of modernisation and provides insights about the impact of Western modernity on the sizeable Islamist section. The study employs important concepts such as secularisation, nationalism, the modern state, economic development (science, technology, industrialisation), capitalism and democracy as important components of modernity. (It also provides a general analysis of Islamism in the Middle East vis-ä-vis modernity through these concepts). An analysis of the views of the WP elite with regard to these concepts and processes serves to better understanding the Islamist stance towards the particular path of modernisation in Turkey, modernity in general, and also the West. / Osmangazi University, Turkey / Additional content files accompanying this thesis are not available on Bradford Scholars, but are available from the British Library Ethos Service: https://ethos.bl.uk

This study focuses on the Welfare Party elite's conceptualisation of modernity during the party's last 4-5 years before its closure in 1998. Since the party was the most important Islamist organisation in Turkey. it was at an important point of interaction between Islamism and modernity. The study tries to determine the significance of the WP discourse on key modernisation issues by answering such questions as how the WP elite conceptualised modernity; how this conceptualisation was formulated, constructed and what was modernity's relationship with the West in their view. It argues that, the WP elite had a distinct (Islamist) understanding of modernity which, despite its differences in its approach to some basic issues (e. g. secularism) overall remained within modernity by sharing most of its major characteristics. The WP elite, similar to many other Islamist movements, advocated a more Islamic (less secular and less Westernising) route to modernity; and they could not be considered as anti-modernists. The study contributes towards a better understanding of the critical role that a version of Islamism plays in Turkey's politics and process of modernisation and provides insights about the impact of Western modernity on the sizeable Islamist section. The study employs important concepts such as secularisation, nationalism, the modern state, economic development (science, technology, industrialisation), capitalism and democracy as important components of modernity. (It also provides a general analysis of Islamism in the Middle East vis-ä-vis modernity through these concepts). An analysis of the views of the WP elite with regard to these concepts and processes serves to better understanding the Islamist stance towards the particular path of modernisation in Turkey, modernity in general, and also the West.

Political success in semi-democratic countries has two aspects: shifting the balance of power in one’s favor and maintaining it. This thesis seeks to examine how the AKP has succeeded in shifting the balance of power in its favor while its predecessor the Welfare Party did not. Focusing on electoral success, existing research primarily lists center-periphery conflict, moderation, class struggle, party organization, and failures of others as the main determinants. Yet the significance of reining in the power of the Kemalist state structure has been mostly disregarded. Therefore, with a comparison of the AKP (2002-2007) and the Welfare Party (1996-1997) governments, this study tests one assertion using most-similar systems research design that in semi-democratic political settings with strong authoritarian actors, political parties that build broad coalitions via group specific policy promises will be more likely to shift the balance of power in favor of themselves than actors that lack such connections.

Political success in semi-democratic countries has two aspects: shifting the balance of power in one’s favor and maintaining it. This thesis seeks to examine how the AKP has succeeded in shifting the balance of power in its favor while its predecessor the Welfare Party did not. Focusing on electoral success, existing research primarily lists center-periphery conflict, moderation, class struggle, party organization, and failures of others as the main determinants. Yet the significance of reining in the power of the Kemalist state structure has been mostly disregarded. Therefore, with a comparison of the AKP (2002-2007) and the Welfare Party (1996-1997) governments, this study tests one assertion using most-similar systems research design that in semi-democratic political settings with strong authoritarian actors, political parties that build broad coalitions via group specific policy promises will be more likely to shift the balance of power in favor of themselves than actors that lack such connections.

Through this thesis, it is aimed to study the democracy understanding of the Welfare Party (the WP), which was closed down in 1998 by the decision of the Constitutional Court, and the Justice and Development Party (the JDP), which leaved the November 2002 general elections as the leading party and has still been running the country as the single party, in a comparative way. Since the foundation of the JDP, the founders have presented the JDP as a new political formation, which is different from the WP, with which it shares the same political legacy of a tradition (National Outlook Tradition). In that context, through this thesis, the change of claim of the JDP&rsquo / s founders is tried to analyze by settling democracy understanding of these two parties to the center of the study and clarifying the points f change and continuity. The comprehension is tried to do by studying these two parties&rsquo / understanding of society and politics and analyzing how these two parties define and discuss the term of democracy and related concepts such laicism, human rights, participative democracy, pluralist democracy in their discourse. The internal and external factors that affected the parties&rsquo / both the understandings of society and politics / and definition of the term of democracy and related concepts have also been studied. The official party documents, the statements of party authorities and the books of Milli G&ouml / r&uuml / S and Muhafazakar Demokrasi are referred as the primarily resources and the main relevant studies of the Turkish political history literature about the political Islam, state-religion relation, National Outlook have also referred as the secondary resources.