Constructing morality for Turkey : the moral campaign of the 1980s as a novel technique of governing

Abstract

Ankara : The Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Bilkent University, 2010.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- Bilkent University, 2010.

Includes bibliographical references leaves 217-238.

Political history of Turkey of the 1980s usually narrates the institutional
 reorganization of state structure and legislative changes introduced by the military
 regime established after the September 12, 1980 coup d’état and demilitarization
 efforts of the following civilian governments. However, the military regime did not
 simply apply institutional changes; one of its aims was to infiltrate society at every
 level, through “conduct of conduct.” Everyday life was targeted and governed by
 both the military regime, following civilian governments and non-state actors in the
 1980s in order to restructure socio-political space and establish hegemony of a life
 style by setting new standards of normalcy. Morality, as a constitutive element of everyday life, had a peculiar place in
 efforts to reconstruct the distinction between the normal and the abnormal, since it
 was believed that decay of moral values was among the primary reasons of social
 collapse in the pre-coup period. This study, hence, analyzes the moral campaign of
 the 1980s, as a hegemonic project which problematized the conduct and values of
 others and attempted to dominate everyday practices.
 The dissertation studies the Intellectuals’ Hearth and a peculiar reading of
 history and society, the Turkish Islamic Synthesis, as the intellectual background of
 the moral campaign and as an exemplary discourse of moralist thinking. It later
 focuses on three of everyday domains that were targeted in the 1980s to institute the
 proper life style for the society and the individual: education of morality, politics of
 non – heterosexuality and censorship of obscenity.
 This study, then, rewrites the history of Turkey of the 1980s, as a story of
 efforts to develop new standards of moral norms in everyday life.

Keçeli, Öncü

Ph.D.