The the assessmment of economics-administration relationship in the context of political and administrative reform thought in the Tanzimat Period (1839-1876)

Administrative reform, which constitutes one of the most fundamental issues of the discipline of public administration, refers to the transformation in the administrative mechanism depending on the shifts in the social structure and relations and peripheral or circumstantial factors in administrative thought. The economy, which includes the issues of production, distribution, and ownership, has a decisive function on the factors. The transition from feudalism to capitalism enabled the economy to be the main factor influencing state structuring. The economic realm, which used to be a complementary administration facet, had undergone structural and functional changes and turned into a determining factor. Economic thought had gained a central position within the mercantilist age, and cameralism displayed an approach that the administration science could not grow without economics. Economic liberalism, on the other hand, emphasized the decisiveness of the economy on the administration by inventing and embracing the term "political economy". All these approaches show that economics is now considered the new dominant idea in administration, and the administration-economics relationship is rearranged along these lines. The spread of the capitalist production model with the relations designated on these intellectual foundations has created the capitalist world economy and the modern world system. These structures, which are the results of the expansionist attitude, played a leading role in the administrative and political transformations of the states, which were formerly organized on traditional production relations, by necessitating the compulsory integration with the new dominant system. In this study, the transformation of the Ottoman Empire, which in the Classical Period had the opposite understanding of capitalist production relations, is examined in the light of the assumptions that the modern administration-economics relationship was redesigned by taking economy as the primary determinant. Hence, modern economic thought essentially revealed a new administration approach. In terms of scope and limitations, the economic thought, various events, and elements that were influential in the administrative reforms carried out in the Tanzimat Period, which symbolized the reform, are shown throughout the study. It is a fact that the reforms of the period were generally put into motion on the basis and intention of establishing a liberal economic system within the framework of the dependency relations formed in the integration process with the modern world system and the capitalist world economy. This situation was the main reason for the attitude that led to the complete transference of reforms. As a result, the economy was taken as the most solid package of formulation for state administration by the bureaucrat intellectuals and started to be seen as the fundamental principle, which is one of many striking findings of this study. The inheritance of the Tanzimat Reforms with its ideas and institutions to the Republic, and the fact that the reform question has always been explained through economic lenses, are essential points in terms of shedding light on today's administrative reform reflections and problems, which also demonstrates the significance of the study. Keywords: Administrative Reform Thought, Administrative Thought, Capitalism, Economic Thought, Modern World System, Ottoman Empire, Tanzimat