Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-241) and index.

1. The emergence and sustenance of democratic systems -- 2. The political legacy : antecedents of democratization -- 3. The transition to competitive politics -- 4. The cycles of Turkish democracy : 1950-1980 -- 5. The rise and fall of the military as a political force -- 6. Interactions among society, economy, and politics : change and democratization -- 7. The deepening of democracy and its challenges -- 8. Two steps forward and one step back -- Postscript.

Turkey's difficult journey to democracy' provides a thorough examination of the evolution of Turkey's democracy to the present day. After the Second World War, Turkey was considered to have made a highly successful transition from a single party authoritarian state to political competition. Yet, within ten years, Turkey had experienced its first military intervention. During the next forty years, the country vacillated between democratic openings and direct or indirect military interventions. The ascendance in the importance of questions of economic prosperity has helped the deepening and maturing of Turkish democracy, but some impediments persist to produce malfunctions in the operation of a fully democratic system. Through studying the Turkish experience of democratization, 'Turkey's difficult journey to democracy' seeks to provide understanding of the challenges countries that are trying to become democracies encounter in this process. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

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