“Wish System” as an Example of Party-State Integration in the Single Party Period

Abstract

The scope of this study is to evaluate the "Wish System" which was one of the practices of RPP in the single party period and the wishes and requests discussed in the 1939 RPP 5th Great General Assembly. The study has two purposes related to each other. The first one is to discuss the necessity and functionality of the "Wish System" in various dimensions and to evaluate the system as an indication of party-state integration. The second is to analyze the socio-economical conditions which came to the fore in Turkey in that period, in relation to the public's wishes and requests received by the 1939 RPP 5th Great General Assembly from the congresses of centers, townships, jurisdictions and provinces and to evaluate the functionality of the "Wish System" in relation to this assembly example. Although the functionality of the "Wish System" which is taken and evaluated as an indication of party-state integration is disputable, it can be evaluated as a preparation for the transition to democracy, in terms of the attempt to make the participatory democracy survive and forming a platform of democracy even if it was of small scale.