Conservative Modernism: An assessment through Sabahattin Zaim's point of view

Even if definitions and limits of Turkish type of conservatism cannot be defined in a way which is different from the conservatism revealed in the sense of Western, it is a fact that Turkish conservatism also has its own distinctive features. For a long time, social scientists have been discussing on the definition of local and national conservatism differentiating from the definitions of Western conservatism. Within this scope, Turkish conservatism is taken form according to perception and life style of a certain group of people in pursuant of Turkish soil, Anatolian climate, specific belief of geography, culture and value structure. It is an incomplete process. Turkish conservatism proceeds in its own natural way. In this article, the practices and discourses that Turkish conservatism asserts will be examined based on Sabahattin Zaim. Sabahattin Zaimis an enormously effective figure in the conservative imagination with his progressive and developmentalist modeling. Turkish conservatism, as an ideology, has developed a discourse through settling of modernization. However, the conservatism also shows a moderate approach to conservation of traditions and a more gradual modernization. In this context, Sabahattin Zaim constitutes a sample of a conservative modernization with his concrete practice examples particularly on finance, development and education