Ataturk and Reza Shah: Authoritarian Modernization Compared

Introduction

The reforms undertaken in Iran and Turkey by Reza Shah Pahlavi and Kemal Ataturk, respectively, during the early half of the twentieth century represent two classical cases of authoritarian modernization in the study of political science. Comparisons have frequently been drawn between the two regimes despite significant differences between the Safavid or Qajar empires and the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, both regimes acted as catalysts in transforming outdated and archaic empires into modern states trying to keep pace with the progressive Western world.

Reza Shah Pahlavi: Rise to Power and Modernizing Reforms

Reza Shah Pahlavi was the founder and first monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty. He was born as Reza Khan in 1878 in a small village called Alasht, located in the Savad Kouh region in the Caspian district of Mazandaran. His father, Abbas Ali, as well as his grandfather, Morad Ali Khan, had served in the provincial military regiment. Abbas Ali died while Reza Khan was still an infant, and his mother subsequently left Alasht and settled in Tehran at the behest of her youngest brother. The family's financial condition was poor, and when Reza Khan was around fifteen years old, his uncle advised him to join the Persian Cossack Brigade, which was commanded by Russian officers. Reza Khan was a tall, strong, and sensitive young man — highly courageous — and he took part in various battles in the campaign against Salar al-Dowleh. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a First Lieutenant and then a Captain by 1912, owing to his courage and skill with machine guns. His reputation as a brave and fearless soldier, combined with his native intelligence, earned him praise from his commanders, who often selected him for quelling tribal revolts.

Reza Khan's professionalism, ambition, and military reputation served him well. He was most probably promoted to the rank of Colonel by 1915 and became a Brigadier General by 1918. He likely played a major role in the ousting of the commander of the Cossack Division in 1918. Throughout this period, Reza Khan was reportedly disturbed by the fact that Persian troops were placed under the command of Russian Cossack officers. As his popularity and military reputation grew, his relationship with his commanding officers deteriorated. Finally, in 1920, Reza led the Persian troops in removing the Russian officers and took charge of the entire brigade himself. Together with Sayyed Tabatabai, Reza Khan overthrew the Tehran government in 1921, assumed command as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and appointed himself minister of war. After falling out with Tabatabai, he took over as Prime Minister. During the period from 1921 to 1925, he suppressed many tribal uprisings, created a strong and modern army, and ushered in a period of peace and security that the country had not witnessed in over a hundred years. By this time, Ahmad Shah of the Qajar dynasty had become politically weak and was totally eclipsed by the more popular Reza Khan. When Ahmad Shah left the country, the Majlis declared the removal of the absent king and proclaimed Reza Khan as the Shah — or "Shahenshah" — of Persia.

As Shah of Iran, Reza Shah enjoyed widespread popularity at the beginning of his rule. He adopted the name "Pahlavi," derived from "pahlavan," meaning champion. Profoundly influenced by the reforms initiated by Kemal Ataturk in Turkey, Reza Shah also embarked on a series of radical reforms to convert Iran into a secular, modernized country. He changed the country's name from Persia to Iran, the name by which it had been known in ancient times. When Reza came to power, a majority of the population was illiterate, transport infrastructure was abysmal, and industry was stagnant. He initiated far-reaching reforms for expanding foreign trade, modernizing infrastructure, reforming the education system, and uplifting the status of women.

In the realm of foreign affairs, he established an independent customs service, abolished the capitulation system, ended the British Bank's prerogative to issue currency notes, and negotiated a new oil deal with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. His main focus, however, was on internal reforms, which he carried out with devoted fervor. He took over the telegraph services from British management, created a wireless service, and built 20,000 kilometers of roadways. The construction of the Trans-Persian Railway was undoubtedly one of his grandest and most impressive projects. This railroad, 1,400 km long and constructed without any foreign aid, connected Tehran with the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, passing through formidable terrain. He established and encouraged domestic production of consumer goods in state-owned factories, set up the National Bank of Iran, and limited the freedom of merchants by establishing trade monopolies.

Reza Shah encouraged the westernization of education and attire. In 1934, he established the University of Tehran and founded the Persian Academy, whose chief function was to remove borrowed foreign words — including Arabic ones — from the Persian language. He sought to reduce the prestige and influence of Islam and the clergy on public life. Many religious leaders were jailed or exiled, Islamic education was discontinued, and religious processions were banned. People were ordered to adopt Western attire, and women were asked to abandon the veil. Reza Shah made widespread use of the armed forces to implement his rules in a country burdened by superstition, vested interests, and illiteracy. However, using the army to subdue the population made tyrants of many officers, a fact that was deeply resented by a large cross-section of the people.

Reza Shah was also averse to seeking help from either Russia or Britain — Iran's historical overlords — and took great pains to award government contracts to countries other than these two. When the Second World War broke out, a large number of German technicians were therefore working on numerous projects in the country. When the British government requested that these German workers be expelled and that the Trans-Iranian Railway be made available for supplying Allied troops, Reza Shah refused to cooperate and insisted on maintaining the neutrality Iran had declared at the outbreak of the war. As a result, Russian and British forces moved into the country and forced his abdication. His wish to emigrate to Canada was rejected, and he was moved to Mauritius and later to South Africa, where he died in 1944.

The drastic reforms Reza Shah introduced to Iranian society undeniably elevated Iran from an old empire to a new, progressive state. The Pahlavi regime constantly reiterated its commitment to modernism, however superficial that commitment may have been. Dubbing Reza Shah the "founder of modern Iran" was another of the state's strategies for legitimizing its avowed commitment to modernization. Yet these reforms were, in many respects, a continuation of the objectives of the Constitutional Revolution of 1905. The initial success of the reforms — especially the attempts at secularization — could also be attributed to the already declining power base of the Islamic clergy and to the fact that religion had ceased to be the sole platform for the legitimization of political opposition. Earlier reforms had already paved the way for the emergence of intellectual circles, professional associations, socio-political journals, and numerous secular political publications that provided channels for political participation.

Reza Shah recognized that his attempts to bolster national consciousness required more than glorifying the pre-Islamic splendors of Iran's past. This realization gave rise to his policy of etatisme in the economic field, which stressed industrialization. This approach could not produce a politically forceful class of private entrepreneurs or generate free-market capitalism, but it did improve investment opportunities for private enterprise through banking reforms, an industrialization drive, restrictions on tribal movements, and the gradual integration of Iran into the global capitalist market. Nevertheless, the utilization of the military to assert control over the country was a delegitimizing factor of the Reza Shah regime. Many would characterize this era as one of intellectual repression and transience. Yet the iron hand with which rapid modernizing reforms were carried out undeniably laid the foundations for a "secular state machinery" and contributed to the emergence of a previously nonexistent group of "political-intellectual elite."

Reza Shah was undoubtedly one of the architects of modern Iran, though his vision was an extension of that of earlier Iranian reformers and was itself inspired by the neighboring successes of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. While his notions of modernization may have remained at a superficial level, the fact remains that his style of authoritarian modernization forced his country to feel the inevitability of change — the essential ingredient required for subsequent modernizations.

Kemal Ataturk: Revolution and the Kemalist Program

Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey and its first elected president, was born as Mustafa on March 12, 1881, in Salonika (Thessaloniki), in Greece, which was then under the Ottoman Empire. His father, Ali Riza Efendi, was a customs official who wanted his son to be educated at a secular school, but he died while Mustafa was still a child. It was his mother, Zubeyde Hanim, who raised him — first at his uncle's home in the countryside and later at his aunt's house in Salonika. While in primary school, one of his teachers gave him the surname "Kemal," meaning "perfect." Mustafa Kemal attended military school in Salonika and later in Manastir, where he completed his secondary education. In 1899, he enrolled in the infantry division of the Military Academy at Istanbul, and upon completing his training in 1902, he joined the General Staff College, from which he graduated with the rank of captain. Sent to Damascus in 1906, he founded a society called "Vatan ve Hurriyat" ("Fatherland and Freedom") and also became a member of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the Young Turk Movement.

Mustafa Kemal and other army officers received the support of the Young Turks to lead a movement against the Ottoman sultan for the restoration of the constitution in 1908. In 1911, he joined the war in Libya against Italy on his own initiative and fought in the defense of Derne and Tobruk. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire aligned itself with Germany and Austria-Hungary. At that time, Mustafa Kemal was serving on the Gallipoli peninsula, where he successfully thwarted a British invasion in 1915 and instantly became a national hero. However, the Ottoman Empire and its allies were ultimately defeated. The Treaty of Sèvres gave the Empire an unfavorable settlement, stripping it of major territories except for the ethnic Turkish enclave that would form present-day Turkey. The Turks resisted the treaty's terms by fighting back against Allied forces. The nationalist movement was headed by Mustafa Kemal, and it was owing to his exceptional military skills that the Turks emerged victorious in 1922. The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 confirmed this victory and frustrated Kurdish aspirations for autonomy. The sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who had aligned himself with the Allied powers, was overthrown, and the Empire was abolished. In 1923, Mustafa Kemal proclaimed the birth of the new Turkish Republic, and he was voted its first president.

As head of state and chief of the newly formed Republican People's Party, Kemal now embarked on his mission to transform Turkey into a modern, westernized state. His reforms were radical in nature and helped convert a multiethnic empire built on Islamic traditions into a more tolerant and secular nation. The Turkish government took over key economic sectors and promoted industrialization. Kemal was strongly pro-Western, and most of his policies reflected this orientation. In 1926, a Western-style legal system was adopted. In 1928, the country adopted the Latin alphabet. Mass education was introduced, and in 1934 women gained the right to vote. That same year, the government made it compulsory for all Turkish nationals to adopt surnames, as was common in Western countries. It was at this time that Mustafa Kemal was given the name "Ataturk," meaning "father of the Turks." His far-reaching reforms converted Turkey into an exemplary nation that served as a model for newly emerging countries confronting similar challenges in the twentieth century.

The ideological basis of Kemal Ataturk's reform initiatives came to be known as "Kemalism." Its main principles were illustrated through the "Six Arrows": nationalism, populism, republicanism, etatism, secularism, and reformism. These principles were enshrined in the Turkish constitution and were regarded as "fundamental" and "unchanging" doctrines to guide the nation. Republicanism, as stated in the constitution, reiterated that sovereignty was not the privilege of a single ruler but was "vested in the nation." Populism held that all citizens of Turkey were equal and that every one of them was Turkish; the communal autonomy previously granted to smaller ethnic groups was abolished. Reformism gave a legal and legitimate face to the changes implemented in social and political life. Etatism affirmed the pivotal role of the government in directing the nation's economic activities and was incorporated specifically to justify large-scale state investment and a mixed economy in government-owned institutions.

One important goal of Ataturk's economic policies was to prevent foreign powers from exercising excessive and unwarranted influence over the country's economy. Secularism brought about a total separation of state from religion, including the abolition of the caliphate. Ataturk replaced the Seriat Kanunu — the theological canonical law — with the Swiss Civil Code, and replaced the existing penal code with the Italian Penal Code. Islam was entirely excluded from Turkey's official life, a reform that outraged many contemporaries. All religious schools were shut down, public education was secularized, and Islamic religious orders were curbed. There were protests from traditionalists, but Ataturk remained firm and suppressed all forms of dissent.

Ataturk introduced various educational reforms based on Western prototypes, including a university reform in 1933. He also initiated sweeping changes for the emancipation of Turkish women, who had been treated as second-class citizens for centuries. A civil code was passed that granted Turkish women the same rights as men — the right to vote, the right to be appointed to public office, and the right to contest elections. The law also required monogamous relationships. Citizens were called upon to discard traditional attire in favor of European-style dress. The fez hat, which reminded Ataturk of the old caliphate system, was banned, and men were encouraged to wear Western-style hats. Women were also encouraged to give up the carsaf and veil. These progressive reforms fundamentally changed the nature of Turkish society.

Ataturk's foreign policy was carefully crafted and highly diplomatic, guided by his principle of "Peace at home, peace in the world." This principle became an important guideline in Turkey's relations with other nations. He signed friendship treaties with fifteen countries, including a twenty-year friendship and neutrality treaty with the USSR, which was unilaterally terminated by the USSR in 1945. Turkey also entered into the Balkan Pact with Romania, Yugoslavia, and Greece to counter the influence of a possible alignment of Bulgaria with Germany and the hostile foreign policy of Fascist Italy. A non-aggression treaty was signed with Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan in 1937. One of the greatest diplomatic successes Ataturk achieved was persuading the signatories of the Treaty of Lausanne, through the Montreux Convention, to allow Turkey to take control of and remilitarize the Straits.

Ataturk often had to use force to suppress dissident movements. The conflict between his authoritarian manner of implementing modernizing reforms and his liberal-democratic ideals resulted in political instability as well as, paradoxically, increased democratization. Nonetheless, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was instrumental not only in establishing the Republic of Turkey and initiating a sweeping set of reforms that altered the political, legal, economic, social, and cultural fabric of Turkish society, but also in paving the way for Turkey's modernization and serving as a role model for many other countries. Ataturk died on November 10, 1938, of cirrhosis of the liver. He was truly the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

Conclusion

Both Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk were self-made men, accomplished military leaders, and dedicated nation-builders. There were similarities as well as significant differences between the two, but the greatest bond between them was their utmost dedication to rapidly transforming the fortunes of their respective countries through radical reforms imposed with an iron hand. Despite their use of force in implementing authoritarian modernization programs, there is no doubt that without these two leaders, the futures of their countries would have been drastically different from what we see today. Whatever mistakes they may have made while ruling can easily be weighed against the tremendous progress achieved in social, cultural, political, and educational spheres. The strides made in the emancipation of women in both countries are particularly exceptional and noteworthy. Both leaders deserve recognition for their extraordinary endeavors in nation-building.