The Critique of the “Strong State Tradition” Thesis in Turkey Demet Dinler In the analysis of state/society relations the dominant paradigm in Turkey is the one which takes state and society as two separate entities and which focuses on the negative impact of strong state tradition stemming from the Ottoman patrimonialism, persisting during the Republican transformation and still dominating society in today’s Turkey. The article critically evaluates this paradigm with reference to the way in which state/society, state/bourgeoisie/ state/economy are considered and tries to show how it brings about some mistaken political outcomes for class struggle, by preventing us from exploring the state as a form of the social relations.