Erken Cumhuriyet Döneminde Devletçilik: Ahmet Ağaoğlu ve Kadro Hareketi

Abstract

There were many different views on how the development would take place between the years 1923-1946, which is called the Early Republican period. One of them can be defined as the liberal approach to statism that prioritizes the individual, while the other can be expressed as a fully interventionist understanding of statism that sees national interests as superior to individual interests. For example, between 1932-1933, there were long debates on the principles of statism between Ahmet Ağaoğlu who was active in the determination of liberal policies, and the Kadro Movement which was a product of the Marxist tradition. Ahmet Ağaoğlu was not only an intellectual but also an advocate of liberal nationalism in the political field as an active participant. The Kadro movement, which approached Kemalism from a socialist perspective, argued that the state needs to be active in all fields for national interests. In this study, the understanding of statism has been tried to be examined with the liberal perspective of Ağaoğlu and the full interventionist approach of the Kadro movement, contrary to many different interpretations. The Republic of Turkey, which replaced the Ottoman Empire, has tried various economic policies to revive the economy that crumbled in the previous wars. Particularly, the debates between the Kadro movement from Marxist tradition and Ağaoğlu from the liberal nationalist wing were effective in the adoption of the mixed economy system, which did not refuse private investments but also put the state into the active role after the 1929 Economic Depression.