AN ANALYSIS OF THE RISE OF THE NEW ISLAMIC ENTREPRENEURIAL ELITE AS AN ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL POWER IN TURKEY: THE CASES OF MÜSİAD AND TUSKON

This study explores the political, social and economic transformation of Islamic entrepreneurs in Turkey, their emergence and their progress into a large, politically and socially influential business elite. The focus of this historical analysis of Turkish political economy is on the relations between the state, business and the interdependent relations of the new entrepreneurship. Also, the way of the interaction of this new Islamic entrepreneurship with Turkish modernization, which is dominated by the Turkish state, is one of the important steps in the line of the theoretical analysis. The economic, social and political trajectory of Islamic business people in the last two decades is examined in terms of the commonalities and differences in the perspectives of members and executives of two Islamic business people associations: the Association of Independent Businessmen and Industrialists (MÜSİAD) and the Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey (TUSKON), with a focus on politics, religion, culture and business relations. This research consists of a comparative analysis of the views, perceptions, and life-stories of the members of MÜSİAD and TUSKON, which were gathered through a field research based on the interviews conducted in the years between 2013-2015. The interviews sought pathways to extract the data on the emergence of a new, Islamic approach to business life, cultural change, political views, and governmental relations in both political and economic levels in a country that is constitutionally secular. The empirical and theoretical analysis of this study demonstrates that the over-generalizing reductions of Euro-centric and orientalist perspectives on Islamic business people are incorrect to a significant extent. The case of Turkish modernization was examined in this context by employing the multiple modernities approach to understand this phenomenon within the Turkish modernization process. It is concluded that the Islamic business is both a significant case for understanding the interaction of Islam with Turkish modernity and also it constitutes a social and economic background for the transoformation of new conservative polity in Turkey.