NOSYON: Uluslararası Toplum ve Kültür Çalışmaları Dergisi

Öz

Culture is the preparer and shaper of all human actions and thinking patterns. Likewise, culture is the dynamic underlying the formation, development and shaping of civilization. Culture, for which there is no consensus in its definition, is sometimes used together with social, political and economic realities such as religion, sometimes geography, sometimes profession, as well as being the actions of a society. One of them is Western culture. Although there is not a single Western culture, the category that is generally defined as Western culture is called Western culture within the same culture category with its closeness in basic understandings, similarities in mentality worlds and parallels in practices. This culture can neither be defined by geographical proximity nor by religion despite its weight. After the Western culture, which has its roots in Ancient Greece, declined for centuries, Western civilization emerged as a result of the transformation it carried out with the ways of thinking and cognition shaped since the 16th century. The achievements of this civilization in providing security and welfare to the people living in it are obvious with its many outputs. This situation has led to the imitation and implementation of institutions and practices of non-Western societies of countries in the Western civilization basin. However, in many societies, the cultural dimension of the issue has been neglected and it has been ignored that the success of an applied model depends on the harmony with the culture of the relevant society. One of the products of Western civilization is the welfare state. Practices and practices that show similarities with the practices in the context of the welfare state and even have serious benefits in the period are encountered in the histories of large societies such as the Turks. Although these were useful practices in the period, they cannot be seen as social policy. Because social policy and welfare state are modern phenomena. Aside from some debates such as the role of Turks in the formation of Western civilization, the welfare state is an output of Western civilization in the last instance. In this study, the relationship between the welfare state and culture was examined, and it was questioned in which classification the welfare regime applied in Turkey took place. In this context, the potential of culture to change was mentioned and it was evaluated whether the practices resulted in a beneficial way to ensure the harmony of Turkish culture with an output of Western civilization. Accordingly, it was stated that the welfare regime implemented in Turkey was incompatible with the Turkish national culture. It was claimed that this resulted in failure in social policy.