The populist thought in modern Turkey and Village Institues

One of the fundamental principles of the republic, the idea of Populism, as many other ideas, is based on the pre-republic. The idea of populism, expressed in connotations such as going to the public during the Period of Legitimacy is an ideology of the national economy and the solidarity character, which include nationalist characters in recent periods of the Ottoman State, and has the target of Public enlightenment. In the years of the War of Independence, the idea of populism became even more important. Thanks to it, the founders of the republic wanted the support of the large masses of people behind them. İn this period, the idea of populism emphasized points such as national sovereignty and public sovereignty. Following 1930, the idea of populism is shaped in a way that can be slogans "for the sake of the public, despite the public". The tradition of solidarist populism pointed out by Ziya Gökalp appears in these periods. Especially, with the project "Village Institute", young intellectual teachers brought civilization to the public and "went to the public". The village institutes are the most concentrate form of the Republic's idea of populism. Especially, in our country where most of the population lived in villages, development and enlightenment had to begin from the villages In this study, the Village Institutes project is evaluated as a populist movement for the benefit of people. Within the scope of the study, it was concluded that the Village Institutes movement differed from other populist practices of the republic and that it was the movement that most served the ideal of "going to the people".