Emerging of the Reperesentative Councils and New Organisations within the Administrative System of the Ottoman State in the Tanzimat Era

Abstract

Democratic organisations and elected councils are vital to embody the democratic regimes shaped by the "rule of law principle" of the modern times. The initial traces of democratic change can be found in the moments when the elected organs and elected representatives started to become effective. Such organisations and councils have started to emerge during the modernization periods such as the Tanzimat Era in the last century of the Ottoman Empire and played a significant role in political and administrative structuring. When considered from this point of view, modernization of Ottoman administration was not only a movement initiated and handled by the central authority, but a time period where the organisations and councils were the determinants shaped by the genuine conditions of the periphery. These reformist and representative structures were the most important milestones of the modernization process until the establishment of Turkish Republic.