مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - POSTMODERNISM AND TURKISH BUREAUCRATIC ELITES: A NOTE ON THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF CHANGE

Abstract :

The aim of this paper is to question how the discussions can be introduced by postmodernism in the field of science philosophy affect the change in Turkish bureaucratic elites. Turkish bureaucratic elites have been the representatives of an understanding in responsibility that can not be limited to bureaucracy in terms of institutionalization. The effects of public administration on the components/ones who are elected via democratic ways are thus definite by no question. It can be denoted that bureaucratic elites achieved this position during the Turkish modernization process. The idea that can be defined as Enlightenment rationality which has become indenpendent from history, religion and tradition through pozitivism starting from Tanzimat/Reforms coming to the Republican Period has function as construction and conservation of the strong position of the Turkish Bureaucratic Elites against the elected ones. This epistemological proof has been questioned and criticised thanks to the discussions brought by postmodernism. The adjustment of postmodernism as a new paradigm has made the effective position of bureaucratic elites in the Turkish Public Administration that they achieved in the modernization process to be questionable and criticisable. This has put high pressure on the bureacratic elites who continously recreate themselves based on the same rationality to change.