COLLECTIVIST
.Loyalty to the group's interest
.Strong, cohesive groups
INDIVIDUALIST
.Pursuit of own interest
.Looser ties between individuals
A typical feature of collectivist societies is for example the strong cohesive feeling between people in whatever they do. Generally spoken, these communities act like one block, moving forth and backwards all together. On the other hand, loyalty is a keyword as well. Loyalty towards the interests of the group more specifically. There are a lot of common interests which can be or be caused by race, religion, a strong bond with the land, common history, etc. The most obvious of those interests in today’s world is probably religion. It bounds people in a very spiritual way and causes people to have faith in one another or even only have faith in people with the same religious convictions. You just have to turn on the tube at home and you will hear about all kinds of religious conflicts.
The model that stands opposite to collectivism is individualism. The word clearly puts the individual, the identity of one person in the spotlights. Selfishness is a word that directly popped into my mind in relation to the word and actually that is not a bad comparison at all. Individualist societies put the stress firmly on each individual himself. Decision-making happens for the benefit of oneself. Of course both models are extremes and would never fully dominate a culture but what can definitely be said is that most countries clearly lean to one of both models. Western culture and lifestyle are mainly individualist oriented. As Elvis put it: “one for the money, two for the show”.
Belgians follow this western pattern and stress the importance of the individual. As cited before, religion plays a big role to the extent people feel connected with each other. Since less than 10% of the Belgian population still considers itself religious, this important factor falls out for the greater part. Apart from this, individual oriented thoughts are required to really be able to participate in western life. If not, you are probably going to drop out anyway because other people just are not there to help you in the same way as collectivist societies do. To be successful, you need a job. To get a job, you have to prove yourself better than other candidates. It is like survival of the fittest.
There are strong relations between the country’s regime and social behaviors. In order to find out social behaviors related to individualism-collectivism that are exhibited in Turkey, firstly status quo must be determined. In the 21st century, there are a few exceptions though. Most of the countries are affected by liberal economic movement because of the globalization process. As a direct result, people are shifted from a collectivist to an individualist approach inevitably. In other words, liberalism which is relying on self-interest understanding affects social relations. Turkey is a typical example of this situation. In early Turkish history, collectivism was stronger than individualism because of Turkish culture, custom and tradition. For example, moving house, planting and harvesting the field are collectivist activities. Relations are in general tighter in all the different neighborhoods. Even cooking and having dinner is usually a shared activity altogether with the neighbors. Nowadays, these activities are less frequent though. Because of the fact that modernization period and liberalism, individualist approach is mainly stressed all around world. People aim to maximize their interest and pleasure. Money, time, power and nutrition become the most important matters for each and every person. None of these issues are shared. And undoubted, status quo (liberal economy) is main deterministic factor for this change from collectivism to individualism. People only gather when interests and purposes are common. The east part of Turkey, where traditions and customs are still intensively practiced, is more collectivist in comparison to the west because factors such as money and self-interest, all liberalism-related subjects, are less important in the east. Consequently, in the modern world the individualist approach is an unavoidable characteristic surrounded by globalization and liberalism. A lot of countries, mainly western states are largely individualist but Turkey is less individualist in comparison to those countries due to the different religion, tradition and custom.
Kadir Can Türkoğlu
Maxime Dewalhens
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