MILLET SYSTEM IS ALIVE: PATH-DEPENDENCY IN RULING DIVERSITY IN CYPRUS

Year 2016, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 26 - 43, 01.12.2016

Huseyin Alptekin

Abstract

This article sees the roots of the identity politics in Cyprus in the historical legacy of the Ottoman millet system. It demonstrates that ethnic divisions in Cyprus have been re produced by the institutionalized political legacies going back to the Ottoman millet system. The system persists due to a number of institutionalist mechanisms from path dependency historical institutionalism to the elite incentives to continue the status quo rational choice institutionalism and the limits of cultural repertoire sociological/cultural institutionalism . The change toward a different model of ruling diversity is not impossible, but extremely unlikely given the rational, cultural, and historical bases of the millet system-like designs in Cyprus. Hence, there still seems to be no alternative to the bi-communality of the island in negotiating for its future politics. Given the resistance of current institutional legacy in Cyprus, the change can only be possible with deeper exogenous shocks or a long chain of small steps that might take unpredictable length

Keywords

Cyprus, millet system, historical institutionalism, path dependency, ethnic politics

MİLLET SİSTEMİ YAŞIYOR: KIBRIS’TA FARKLILIKLARIN İDARESİNDE İZLEK BAĞIMLILIĞI

Abstract

Bu makale Kıbrıs adasında Osmanlı döneminden bugüne gözlemlenen kimlik politikalarını Osmanlı millet sisteminin bir mirası olarak görmektedir. Adadaki iki temel etnik grup olan Türk ve Rum nüfusları millet sistemi ile kurumsallaşmış ve yüzyıllar boyunca bu sistemin mirası üzerinde hayat bulmuştur. Bu mirası cari kılan temel üç mekanizmanın her üçü de kurumsalcı literatür içinde kalınarak açıklanabilir: tarihsel kurumsalcılığın izlek bağımlılığı kavramı, siyasi elitlerin statükoyu korumaya yönelik motivasyonları rasyonel seçim kurumsalcılığı ve kültürel repertuar sosyolojik/kültürel kurumsalcılık . Bu şartlar altında başka bir modele geçiş imkansız olmasa da oldukça zor görünmektedir. Bu bakımdan geleceğe dair projeksiyonlar da millet sisteminin genel çerçevesi dışında düşünülemez. Herhangi bir değişiklik ise ancak iki şekilde mümkün olabilecektir: tarih boyunca yaşanmış kırılmalardan da daha derin bir harici şok yahut çok uzun bir dönem boyunca ısrarla aynı doğrultuda süregidecek olan değişim adımları

Keywords

Kıbrıs, millet sistemi, tarihsel kurumsalcılık, izlek bağımlılığı, etnik siyaset

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