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Article Besir Fuad's voltaire: Liberating the Individual(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2022) Muhurcuoglu, KorhanBesir Fuad (1852?-1887) is an obscure figure among late nineteenth century Ottoman intellectuals known for his materialistic views which were unprecedented under the Hamidian regime (1876-1909) and who shocked his contemporaries by committing suicide at an early age, leaving a note and a letter containing his last impressions and world view. Just months before his suicide, Besir Fuad published a Voltaire biography in which he commemorates him as an Enlightenment ideal to be emulated in humankind's struggle against religious intolerance. In this article, Besir Fuad's Voltaire (1886) is examined, arguing that the monograph was, though in an embryonic form, an early expression and defence of individual liberty, based on a materialistic world view that aims at demystification of the prevailing customs and morals as irrational and superstitious absurdities to pave the way for a future society in which the individual would be in liberty.Article The Paradox of Power in Turkey: Omnipotent Leader, Impotent State(Wiley, 2026) Bektas, Eda; Muhurcuoglu, KorhanThis article examines a central paradox of contemporary authoritarianism: how the concentration of power in the hands of a seemingly omnipotent executive can simultaneously erode bureaucratic capacity and autonomy through subordination, producing an increasingly impotent state. Focussing on Turkey's transition to hyper-presidentialism after the 2018 elections, it argues that excessive centralisation has undermined the institutional competence and discretion required for coordinated and effective policy implementation. The government's response to the 6 February 2023 twin earthquakes provides a tragic and revealing case that affected millions of lives. Despite Recep Tayyip Erdo & gbreve;an's pledges that the presidential system would deliver efficiency and decisiveness, disaster governance was marked by delayed decision making, poor coordination, limited capacity for rapid mobilisation and communication and an emphasis on narrative control over effective execution. Drawing on bureaucratic capacity and autonomy as indicators of governance quality, this article shows how personalist rule hollows out state institutions, exposing its limits in delivering good governance.
