Center-Periphery Relations: A Key to Turkish Politics?
Society has a center. Yet
just as certain societies have stronger
centers than others, the materials of which centers are forged vary greatly between greatly between societies. The Middle East has had a long history of attempts to construct the instutional framework of such centers, even though efforts to marshall these "free floating" resources were, more often than not, ephemeral. Here, the Ottoman Empire emerges as an outstanding exception. There was, in the Ottoman Empire, a lasting
Center supported by a sophisticated network of institutions.