The political culture of early Turkish Republic: In the context of stigma theory and education

Political culture is about believes, behaviors and manners towards the political system. There are social, historical, political, psychological, economical resources of the political culture. In this study, an evaluation has been done about the Stigma Theory and political culture. Stigma can be described as a label that discriminates, isolates and otherizates poeple. It also affects the building of social identity. At this point, it should be pointed out that the relation between political culture and Stigma Theory has been studied for the first time in the context of early Turkish Republic. The foundation process of the new state has been examined from the point of Stigma Theory. "Can there be any effects of stigmatization over the early period of Turkish Republic's political culture?" is the starting research question. Moreover, "can one talk about the stigmas which existed in the 19th century Turkish image in the West?", "What kind of stages can one talk about the awareness of stigmas on the behalf of Turks?", "Can one talk about the effects of this awareness on the socialization of Turkish founding fathers?" are other research questions. With a researh done by surveying the writings of the entellectuals who lived in the last period of the Ottoman Empire, it has been found that the founder fathers had been socialized by the knowledge of stigmas. It is searched that how the perception of stigmatization that is owned by the founder fathers affects the political culture of the time. In order to solve this problem, the school books as a material that can show the ideology of the founders are used. The years between 1931-1947 are examined for the school books with the method of descriptive content analysis. In the books,the labels such as"barbar, uncivilised, artless, fatalist, fanatic Muslim, Eastern, Eastern Tyrant, Sick Man" have been examined. In the end of this research, it is seen that the responses which are given in the school books against the stigmas are coherent with the sayings of Stigma Theory. According to the Stigma Theory, a stigmatized person can refuse his stigmas, can accept his stigmas or can produce counter-stigmas. The rhetoric in the school books show that the founders use these three politics together against their stigmas. Moreover, it can be said that the school books of the Early Turkish Republic help to form a kind of democratic political culture.Furthermore, the rise of the nationalist sentiments in the building of the Turkish nation state can be attributed to the existence of the stigmas. In the end, with the all findings one can have an evaluation on the behalf of Turkish Republic using the categories of "fragmanted political culture", "subject political culture" and "democratic political culture".