Civilian bureaucracy

The bureaucracy that implemented the republic’s modernization reforms from the top down did so in a manner resembling the Ottoman attitude of looking down on the public. Local politicians forced the capitulation of this bureaucracy in the name of democracy following the Democratic Party’s (DP) rise to power. This reaction, based on history, was understandable but for only a certain amount of time. The continuation of the concept of "national will" without rules, aimed at the people’s rule over the state, has almost wrecked the entire civilian bureaucracy.

Bureaucrats, not politicians, run a country. These bureaucrats, who are trained from a very young age and become experts in their fields, know how to manage a country better than politicians. Additionally, for bureaucrats who have no political agenda it is much easier to protect the interests of the people. Politicians formulate alternative policies that are aimed at satisfying separate parts of society before presenting them to a bureaucrat, who in turn implements them within the limits of the administrative rules.

In Turkey, we see politicians going beyond simply intervening in the implementation of policies; we see these politicians actually implementing them themselves, garnering all the power in the process. Today’s politicians, like Ottoman sultans, interpret governance as total control. Every new government starts its term by replacing all the top-level bureaucrats and appointing less-informed individuals to the top posts of the state in order to preserve their authority and to exercise their power over issues that in truth require many years’ experience in bureaucracy to become fully conversant with.

If the politicians were of a high caliber, this interventionist approach would have created fewer problems. However, the majority in Turkey believes in electing those whom they can identify with instead of those who know what to do. They elect those who will not look down on them and who can sympathize with their problems in Parliament. Voters are the same everywhere, and it is nothing special for politicians to know of their problems. The truth is that those who know what the concerns of the people are don’t really know how to resolve them; they try to satisfy all of the people’s concerns in order to be re-elected. The populist policies they follow produce inflation, state budgets becomes more debt-ridden and investment stops. Worse still, lawlessness reigns, traffic becomes monsterous, failure to comply with building codes is rife and a black market emerges. Politicians, who turn a blind eye to all this, see no harm in trying to gain benefits for themselves and their associates from this chaos. Corruption holds sway and the basis of the system, the state, flounders.

Together with all this comes bankruptcy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) comes, and together with the concept of "national will" without rules, even national sovereignty comes under the IMF’s control. Those who cannot govern themselves with the bungled concept of "national will" end up being ruled by the will of foreigners.

This government reduced inflation by continuing to implement the economic reforms formulated by Kemal Dervis, but it has yet to implement any more of those reforms. Regarding our economy, we are entering the second half of the year with significant apprehension. However, if Turkey is to resolve its unemployment and poverty issues, it has to grow by a larger margin than Dervis proposed. Today’s government and bureaucracy cannot accomplish that task.

The only country that was able to catch up to the West — Japan — employs very talented bureaucrats in its state institutions, especially the Central Bank and the finance and trade and industry ministries, who govern Japan as if it were a company. Their government believes that it is its national duty to protect these bureaucrats against populist groups and to do as they say. The result is plain to see.

In Turkey, the politicians who have ruined the bureaucracy by reforming and complaining about it serve as proof to their phony supremacy. What will change when they reform the bureaucracy, which is now full of individuals more incompetent than they are? Firstly, they must change the primitive concept of "national will."

Despite what the neo-liberal, the former leftist commentators and the politicians they support say, the most urgent priority is to reinvigorate (not expand) the bureaucracy, or in other words, the state. If not, the IMF, the EU membership process and the democratic reforms will not be enough to ensure Turkey’s development and our survival.