Kadro

Kadro believed that a Turkish revolution would occur in two stages: the battle to achieve political sovereignty, achieved in the Turkish War of Independence, and an ongoing battle to liberate the economy and society from imperialist influence. To this end, the Kadro theorists borrowed heavily from Marxist theory, particularly elements of Soviet central planning, and also to a limited extent from south-west European nationalism. Importantly, the Kadro theorists never accepted either of these ideologies, believing that they were creating a third (non-capitalist, non-socialist) development theory that would be essentially Turkish.

The theorists advocated absolute state control of the economy (statism Turkish: devletçilik, a key element of Kemalist ideology),[5] believing that Turkey could overcome the problem of class conflict if the state never developed a middle and upper class. If the state was in charge of development, class conflict would not arise, as capital would be in the hands of the state, not specific classes.

Kadro was important as it sought to provide Kemalist Turkey with a solid theoretical underpinning. Although Kadro policies were never absolutely adapted, Turkey did pursue a state-centered development strategy. The magazine Kadro led to the creation of a so called Kadro movement consisting of left-wing political theorists and its journalists took part in the nightly political debates organized by Atatürk.[6]

Although it claimed to be supportive of the government, the magazine was shut down in 1934:[6] economically liberal figures in the government (like Celal Bayar) worked against the Kadro theories, which they found far too leftist.