TURKEY
Assertive
Secularism
High
Kemalist
Secularism
Conservative
Secularism
Ban on Students’
Religious Dresses;
Ban on Student-led
prayer; Religious
Instruction in Public
Schools; Ban on
Private Religious
Education
Methodology
This dissertation employs a comparative qualitative methodology through the in-depth analysis
It occasionally uses quantitative measurements while making some cross-
country and longitudinal analyses. Although the dissertation uses three countries as primary
cases, it enlarges the number of units of observation
by analyzing the three cases in different
periods of time, by comparing different units (movements, parties, etc.) within three countries,
and by occasionally referring other countries. I chose the US, France, and Turkey as cases since
they provide variations in dependent, intervening, and alternative explanatory variables.
Variation in variables helps me avoid the problem of “selection bias.”
There are also some
specific reasons for my case selection. The US and France are the two founders of secularism
and have been imitated by many other countries worldwide. Turkey, for its part, is the first
secular state in the Muslim World and often proposed as a model for other Muslim societies.
I employ the method of process tracing,
which closely evaluates the process between
two situations to reveal minute dynamics of change from one situation to the other. It explores
step by step the causal relations between opportunity structures, secular and religious
movements' ideologies, and their power struggles.
This analysis unpacks the crucial
transformation process in state-religion relations through the micro dynamics of socio-political
117
Mahoney 2003; Brady 2004; Coppedge 1999; Collier 1991; Ragin 1987; George 1979; Lijphart 1971.
118
For the distinction between a case and a unit of observation, see King, Keohane, and Verba 1994, 51-53.
119
King, Keohane, and Verba 1994, 128-132; Collier and Mahoney 1996; Geddes 1990.
120
Mahoney 2000b; Bennett and George 1997.
121
A general comparison of the US, France, and Turkey would not be sufficient to unpack complexities of each case
and to elaborate differences among them. Therefore, this dissertation analyzes the causal mechanisms of interactions
between secular and religious movements in the historical formation of secularism and contemporary policy making
process. For the analysis of “causal mechanisms,” see Bennett 1999.
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Convention