| Summary/Abstract |
The re-promulgation of the Constitution in 1908 upturned the late Ottoman political system, which included not just its political structure but also the bureaucratic system. Thousands of bureaucrats were dismissed from state service, regardless of their positions. Having organized the purges with limited political power, the Committee of Union of Progress (CUP) achieved a strong political project that contributed to controlling the actual state apparatus. In fact, the consensus in the literature is that purging the masses has always been an authoritarian practice prevalent in the twentieth century. This, thus, challenges the widely held notion that the CUP’s leadership preferred inspecting the government from backstage before 1913. This study aims to understand the extent of the CUP’s power in action during the early Constitutional Period. Focusing on the process of the enactment of the tensikât law, this study primarily examines the legislative methods adopted by the CUP to define the nature of power relations shared by various actors.
|