Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - International
Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, grade: 5 (CH), University of
Bern (Insitut für Politikwissenschaft), course: Deliberative Democracy,
language: English, abstract: The victory of the conservative AKP
(Justice and Development Party) in November, 2002 elections has brought
the issue of turban1 back on the agenda, so much so that the tension
between Islamists and Kemalists has again increased. This controversial
debate has divided the Turkish society into different camps. Secularists
claim that the turban is a political symbol and has nothing to do with
basic individual rights. Islamists, on the other hand, treat it mainly
as an issue of religious freedom. The basic goal of this paper is to
answer the question of whether deliberative democracy can contribute to
creating a healthy dialogue between Islamists and Kemalists in Turkey.
Special emphasis has been given to deliberative concepts such as social
learning and mutual understanding, because they may enhance the
possibility that an adequate atmosphere of dialogue can be created.
First, the theoretical framework will be discussed: After handling the
general considerations of deliberative democracy, a more specific model
of John Dryzek will be dealt with which analyses the decision making and
social learning levels of deliberation separately. Then, Seyla Benhabibs
work "Claims of Culture" (2002) will be examined. Benhabib focuses on
the less restricted, informal phases of deliberation in her book. By
focusing on Dryzek and Benhabib, this paper aims to establish an
analytical framework that shows deliberation as an opinion formation
process oriented to learning alongside the decision making process. The
third chapter focuses on the headscarf debate in Turkey by considering
its historical roots and legal framework. In the fourth chapter, a
survey conducted in 2007 by the Konda Research Institute regarding the
perceptions and practices of
