Democracy at Work

In Turkey's 64 il (provinces) this week, some 10 million voters flocked to the polls to elect a new Parliament. Among the millions were work-scarred women in rusty black, proudly casting their votes. Among them also were many illiterates who identified themselves on the polling-place registers with thumbprints. In Turkey's confident democracy, illiteracy (which has dropped from about 90% to 60% in three decades) is no bar to the ballot.

This was only the third free election in Turkey's history, and only the second that was conceded by all hands to be honest. The contest was between the incumbent Democrats and the Republican People's Party, both of whom claim descent from the late great Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk, who modernized the nation and cured most of its ancient political and economic sickness, did not believe it was ripe for democracy in his time. His hand-picked successor, Ismet Inonu, ruled for twelve years, and was regarded by his enemies as a vengeful and haughty dictator. In 19461-eight years after Ataturk's death-the people voted for the first time, and returned Inonu's Republicans by a landslide. The Democrats, led by another Ataturk lieutenant, Banker Celal Bayar, charged that they had been jobbed. In 1950 the Democrats, who had built up a strong appeal to Turkey's peasants, won by a reverse landslide. At this key point, having permitted a free election and lost, Inonu stepped down gracefully, and thereby became the father of Turkish democracy.

Last week it was Inonu (now 69 years old) against Bayar again. Both parties were strongly pro-Western, pro-American and anti-Soviet. Turkey's place as the Middle East's strongest anti-Communist bastion was not at issue. In other fields, the Republicans charged that the Democrats had failed to check inflation, had invited in foreign (U.S.) capital in too generous a fashion. The Democrats replied, in effect, by asking the people whether they were not better off than ever before.

The people said yes, by a landslide. On the basis of nearly final returns, the Democrats won 508 out of 541 seats. Celal Bayar would undoubtedly be chosen President, and would undoubtedly reappoint his strongman Premier Adnan Menderes, who is a first-class orator, a wily politician, and a millionaire. For the U.S., the result-though it assured a comforting continuity-was less important than the resounding demonstration of Turkish democracy at work.

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