Kurumsal Değişim Üzerine Bir Çalışma: Osmanlı Sosyal Yapısı ve Kamu Hizmetlerinin Karşılanması

Year 2012, Volume: 6 Issue: 11, 177 - 200, 01.03.2012

Seda Ünsar

Abstract

The article seeks to contribute to issues of institutions that constitute the historical plane on which ‘democratic development’ rests. With that idea in mind, it sheds light onto the institutional course of the Ottoman Empire through the examination of two phenomena: the social structure of the imperial subjects and the provision of public goods. The reason that these two phenomena are essential in assessing the historical trajectory of the empire lies in their particular developmental paths that intertwine and support each other. The Ottoman Empire, which, to an extent, can be seen as the successor state to the Byzantines - as the Byzantine Empire was to Rome-, formed the highest stage of Islamic political institutionalization, having built upon the heritage of mainly the Turks as well as the earlier Muslim polities such as the Umayyad, Abbasid, Seljukian and Mamluk dynasties -plus that of the Mongol. Keeping in mind the Western state model, in the complexity of the political and economic Ottoman organization, those differences that appear as differences of degree compared to the West, still constitute an Ottoman peculiarity. 

Keywords

Ottoman Institutions, (Democratic) Development, (Ottoman) State, waqf, lonca,  property rights 

A Study on Institutional Change: Ottoman Social Structure and the Provision of Public Goods

Abstract

Bu makale, ‘demokratik gelişim’in dayandığı tarihi zemini oluşturan kurumsal konular literatürüne katkıda bulunmayı hedeflemektedir. Bu amaçla, iki temel olgunun irdelenmesi aracılığıyla, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun kurumsal süreçlerine ışık tutar. Bu iki olgu, imparatorluk tebasının sosyal yapısı ve kamu ürünlerinin karşılanmasıdır. Bu iki fenomenin, imparatorluğun tarihsel yörüngesini tahlil etmedeki önemi, tarihsel olarak birbiriyle kesişen gelişim yollarına dayanır. Kendisinden önce gelen Emevi, Abbasi, Selçuklu ve Memluk hanedanları, Moğol etkisi ve temelde Türk mirası üzerine inşa edilen ve bir dereceye kadar, Bizanslılar’ın halefi sayılabilecek olan Osmanlı İmparatorluğu (bir anlamda Bizanslılar’ın Roma’nın halefi olmaları gibi), İslami siyasi kurumsallaşmanın en yüksek noktasını temsil etmektedir. Batı devlet modelini göz önüne aldığımızda, Osmanlı ekonomik ve siyasi organizasyonunda, Batı’ya göre, derece farkı olarak görünen farklılıklar, aslen Osmanlı’ya has kurumsal niteliklerdir. 

Keywords

Osmanlı Kurumları, (Demokratik) Gelişme, (Osmanlı) Devlet(I),  vakıf, lonca, mülkiyet hakkı

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