Köprü Anasayfa

Demokratlık

"Kış 2014" 125. Sayı

  • Being Democratic

    Editorial

    “Being democratic” or “democraticity” is a concept that has been associatedwith democracy and that has taken a very significant place in our democraticculture. This concept has a wide variety of content that must be studied with amulti-directional approach.

    The fact that even though Turkey has a one-and-a half century long experienceof democratization, it hasn’t acquired democracy at a desired level drawsthe attentions to the concept of “democraticity,” which constitutes the essenceof and the subject of democracy. It is quite interesting that different labelsof democraticity such as liberal democracy, social democracy, conservative democracyetc., which appear in the political literature, converge at the commonground of being democratic. It is a wondrous question that which one is thereal democrat among these different patterns of democratic thinking whichdraw different road maps in terms of the administration of society in a moreliberal way and in providing the public and individual freedoms. What are theprinciples that underlie the democraticity? What are the characteristics thatmust be possessed by a democratic person or society? Though it may be fromdifferent democratic perspectives, these questions must be discussed in order tohelp the accomplishment of political arguments on the right grounds.

    Is democraticity a kind of uniform that modern societies and individualsfind fitting themselves or does it represent an attitude or understanding that wecan find in different regimes and systems throughout history? In fact the realdemocraticity which we can basically summarize as “being in favor of the right;accepting the right; being on the side of the right by leaving aside the ideological,institutional and personal priorities” and which represent an attitude andan understanding that we can observe in every period of history necessitatesour questioning of today’s understandings of democracy and democraticity. Inbroad terms, democraticity expresses a standing point which does not alienatethe other; which perceives differences as richness; which accepts just and liberalrules and attitudes; which turns its face to individuals and society without relyingon the state, the status quo or a certain elite; which defends a legal systemproducing justice; and which believes in the supremacy of the law. Thereforeit is necessary to question the conjunctural understanding and behavioral patternsof the liberal, social, and conservative democrats, who do alienation; whoconfine the freedoms into the areas where they have determined; and whoadopt statist attitudes in relation to fundamental rights. Such contradictorysituations which render a partial and sometimes a secular democraticity requireas well the study of “a religious democrat” which is a new democratic identitybased on righteousness and justice.

    Democracy which is remembered alongside democraticity stirs up differentarguments due to hypocritical attitudes of the Westerners about democracy asin the case of Egypt. This situation, which makes up a new area of discussionfor the segment of people who cannot associate Islam with democracy andnever get along with democracy cause the questioning of the relationship betweenIslam and democracy once again and the speeding up of the search forthe domination of the democratic understanding and structures in the waysleading from the conscience to the state. An aspect of these searches points outto the reasons for why we cannot pass to a state of law which gives priority topreserving the human being and the values belonging to humanity, even thoughwe have had a one-and-a half-century long constitutional tradition. It alsoleads to the clues of how to take position against authoritative understandingsand how to establish a democratic culture. The solution of our social problemsby means of these clues which highlight the democratic identity, gains importancein terms of setting up a democratic structure we have desired so far.

    Another issue to be discussed is how to determine the position of Bediuzzamanin the arguments of democraticity. Bediuzzaman always emphasized“Ahrar” the liberals while discussing the fundamental rights and freedoms inthe continuum of history. The question whether Bediüzzaman’s pointing at theDemocrats as the continuation of the Liberals is just an expression of a politicalapproach or it is concerned with the basic stresses of the understanding of liberalismhas a nature that can shed light on the political discussions of our time.

    The definition of democraticity by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi around theissues such as establishing the freedom of conscience, the love for freedom,serving to the nation, being in favor of the symbols of Islamic Sharia, followingthe policies of Islamic Unity, helping the students and truths of Risale-i Nuragainst the movements that disapprove The Quran and Islam is important interms of understanding a line extending from the time of “Asr-ı Saadet” (TheEra of Happiness) till our time. In this context to follow the footsteps of thedemocratic understanding in the Islamic societies throughout history will be aremarkable reading in order to see the reflections of the line in the Era of Happinessunto the democratic descriptions of our time. Furthermore such a readingwill enable us to understand the distinctive features of the democratic linestarting with the liberals, continuing with the democrats, which in return willenable us to evaluate Ak Parti, which is based on a conservative democracy andthe other political parties that have structured around democratic discourses.

    How can the democratic identity and culture be established is among theissues being discussed in democratic societies. Therefore the answer to the question“what are the ways of building up a democratic identity” is related to theextent that the civil social structures like parties, unions, associations and communities have adopted the democratic culture. Therefore the ways of buildingup democracy and the democratic culture will be among the topics discussedin this issue.

    As a result we have planned to determine the topic of the 125th issue ofKöprü as revolving around concepts such as “democracy, constitutionalism,republic, democrat, democraticism, democratic culture, liberal-social-conservativedemocrat, religious democrat, liberals, religiosity, religion, politics, society,civil society, community, association, political parties, the Democrat Party,constitution, army, laicism, independence of jurisdiction, national state, beliefs,ideologies, differences, the survival of the state, pluralism, freedom of press,basic rights and freedoms, the other, opposition, alienation, tolerance, reconciliation,coexistence, righteousness, law, justice, conscience …. ” Within theframework of that plan we have discussed with the Institute of Risale-I Nurthe topic of “democraticity” as a roundtable in İstanbul. Then we declared tothe public opinion the conclusions of that roundtable at a panel organized on29 December 2013. In this issue we publish both the conclusions of the roundtableand the text of the panel.

    The questions we intended to answer in this issue are briefly as follows:

    What is being a democrat (democraticity)?

    What are the basic features of the democratic identity?

    What are the values of a democratic society? Does democraticism exclusivelymean having the right of administrating itself? What is the relationshipbetween republic and democracy and democraticism?

    What is the relationship of the concepts of democracy, democrat, democraticismwith politics and state? How can a democratic diagram concerningpolitics-society, state-politics, and state-society be drawn?

    What is the significance of the supremacy of law in terms of democracyand democraticism?

    What are the measures to be taken to prevent the legal grounds from beingthe destructive means of the powerful? What is the use of the democraticidentity in that context?

    What are the main differences between the types of democraticism suchas liberal, social and conservative democraticisms? Do these different typesexpress contrast or represent different searches for regimes in the conductsconcerning the state?

    What is democraticity and who is a democrat in Said Nursi’s mental world?What sort of relation does Said Nursi set up between the Ottoman Liberals(Ahrars) and the Democrats? What is liberalism (Ahrarlık) according toRisale-i Nur? How can the footsteps of democraticism be followed in the lifeof Bediüzzaman? How can the relationship between Bediuzzaman and theDemocrat Party be considered? What is the significance of the concept of “thelesser of the evils” (ehvenüşşer)? How can we carry this interpretation patternto the political atmosphere of our time?

    Köprü takes pride in meeting with the readers as a “peer-reviewed journal”in this issue and hopes to address you with the texts of the 9th Congress ofRisale-i Nur, “Social Movements and Coexistence according to Said Nursi.”