The Possibility of Political Morality and the Statute of Milli Kalkınma Partisi

Abstract

Although politics and ethics are the concepts that cannot be considered together, the need for political morality is still widely stressed. The statute of Milli Kalkınma Partisi [National Development Party], being the first opposition party in Turkey, which was founded in the very beginning of the multi-party system in 1945, demonstrates almost the features of a guide of political ethics aiming at establishing a political morality if it is classified with regard to the contents of its articles. The statute of Milli Kalkınma Partisi was subjected to a content analysis within the framework of the key words of ethics, morality, and meritocracy, responsibility of occupation and enforcement of the rules. This approach has shown that the statute of Milli Kalkınma Partisi bears the features of a guide of political morality or code of ethics. The applied content analysis also clearly reveals that Milli Kalkınma Partisi and its statute completely rest on a moral mentality. The analysis concludes that the statute of Milli Kalkınma Partisi is a text of political morality which can be referred to in today’s Turkish politics.