General conditions and prices which determine the consumption habits of consumers during the first Democratic Party Governance

The governance of the Republican Party which was in power for 27 years after the establishment of Turkish Republic, ended with the elections of May 14 1950 and the Democratic Party began to rule. In this study, the effect of political events which took place during the first Democratic Party governance to the economic policies and as a result to the purchasing power and the prices, was examinedIn the period of Atatürk, the economy was developed from almost nonexistence and brought to a certain degree. In the period of İnönü who came after Atatürk, statism policies began to be applied due to the Second World War. Because of the statist policies imports were constrained and this situation, coupled with the insufficient production, led to both prices increases and also to the scarcity of products. Consequently, the public could not even continue their consumption habits of the Ottoman period during the days of One Party.The Democratic Party which was established in 1946 won the elections of 1950 by means of its discourse of liberal economic policies which asserted to decrease the prices. During the first years of the Democratic Party governance many investments were made especially in the field of agriculture because of the aids taken from the U.S.A. and as a result, the agricultural production in the country greatly increased. Again in this period new dams, new ports were constructed and the web of roads was enhanced. Besides these, when the prices of sugar, bread and textile products were decreased, the purchasing power of the public increased and they started to purchase more luxury goods.The Democratic Party, with the intention of very rapid development of Turkey, went too far in economic development policies which exceeded the capacity of the economy. As a result, new debts were received from abroad in order to decrease the budget deficits. Because of this wrong policy Turkey became economicaly dependent on foreign countries.