Reversal of Fortune: The Trauma of the Displaced Founding Elites in Israel and Turkey

• In Event: 167 - Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Paper Session. Can Comparative Historical Sociology Save the World? (1) Israel/Palestine

Abstract

Little is known about how elites experience downward political mobility in democracies. In this paper, we ask how political elites account for the loss of political power and what implications this has for their self-understanding as ‘founders’ of their nations. We compare the Turkish CHP and the Israeli MAPAI/Labor parties, which dominated their respective political systems for decades until being ousted. The analysis shows that opinion leaders in both countries worked to maintain dignity by associating themselves with democracy and national ideals, seeing the loss as a cultural trauma that affects both themselves and their entire nation. Opinion leaders employed similar strategies to interpret historical events subsequent to their downfall. Based on this, we suggest that political elites employ cultural strategies in order to maintain a sense of superiority once their political exclusivity has been lost.

Authors

• Shai M. Dromi, Yale University

• Gulay Turkmen-Dervisoglu, Yale University