MODERNIZATION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: AN EXAMINATION OF THE STATE-ALIGNED IRANIAN AND TURKISH NEWSPAPERS IN THE 1920s-1940s

2022-7-23
Jaberi, Mojtaba
The present thesis aims at examining and comparing the ways in which the various aspects of modernization were presented and promoted by the Iranian and Turkish elites on the front pages of the Iranian Ettelaat and Koushesh and the Turkish Ulus (Hâkimiyet-i Milliye) and Cumhuriyet newspapers in the 1920s-1940s. Modernization and Selectorate theories have been used as the theoretical pillars of the present thesis in order to delve into the specific ways in which Iranian and Turkish states/elites tried to transform their nations from traditional to modern ones. The overarching themes of “economic modernization,” “socio-cultural modernization,” and “political/legal modernization” and their respective sub-themes as presented on the front pages of the selected newspapers were traced and analyzed using thematic analysis. This helped reconstruct a general image of the way in which the Iranian and Turkish states/elites in the 1920s-1940s performed the modernization plan. It is argued in the present thesis that the states/elites of the two countries pursued a two-pronged approach, trying to perform modernization on both the “pragmatic” and “ideological” levels, modernizing both their countries’ appearance and the people’s ways of thinking and living. The findings demonstrate that the differences in the historical and political legacies of the two nations before the 1920s and the divergences in the way modernization was performed by each nation’s state/elites in the 1920s-1940s strongly shaped Iranian and Turkish nations’ trajectory of modernization in their foundation era and the eras after that.

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Citation Formats
M. Jaberi, “MODERNIZATION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: AN EXAMINATION OF THE STATE-ALIGNED IRANIAN AND TURKISH NEWSPAPERS IN THE 1920s-1940s,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2022.