Order and Compromise questions the historicity of government practices in Turkey from the late Ottoman Empire up to the present day. It explores how institutions at work are being framed by constant interactions with non-institutional characters from various social realms. This volume thus approaches the state-society continuum as a complex and shifting system of positions. Inasmuch as they order and ordain, state authorities leave room for compromise, something which has hitherto been little studied in concrete terms. By combining in-depth case studies with an interdisciplinary conceptual framework, this collection helps apprehend the morphology and dynamics of public action and state-society relations in Turkey. Contributors are: Marc Aymes, Olivier Bouquet, Nicolas Camelio, Nathalie Clayer, Anouck Gabriela Corte-Real Pinto, Berna Ekal, Benoit Fliche, Muriel Girard, Benjamin Gourisse, Sumbul Kaya, Noemi Levy Aksu, Elise Massicard, Jean-Francois Perouse, Clemence Scalbert Yucel, Emmanuel Szurek and Claire Visier.

This book examines the period of political violence in Turkey between 12 March 1971 and 12 September 1980. It sets out a close analysis of the tactics used by the various protagonists in the conflict, showing how they took over public institutions, the first of which was the police. This book challenges the myth of a 'strong' Turkish state viewed as authoritative and autonomous from society, instead reflecting a state that was unable to contain the political mobilisation actually taking place. In the book, Benjamin Gourisse analyses the structure, mobilisation, and strategies of antagonistic radical political groups caught up in this dynamic of violence, including the far-left organisations and the Nationalist Movement, comprising the Nationalist Movement Party and its satellite organisations. Gourisse demonstrates that from 1975 to 1980, the state was never "out of play". Quite the contrary, in fact, for its institutions, together with the practices, beliefs, and representations of their members and users, were central to the processes constituting the crisis.