Aykiz Dogan (2026)
Turkish Studies, pp. 1-29.

Abstract. This article examines how states use statistics to reinforce legitimacy and international recognition, focusing on the national statistical institute’s creation in early republican Turkey. It argues that the Kemalist government strategically invested in an internationally legible statistical system to position Turkey as a modern sovereign state. Statistics functioned both as a policy tool and a symbolic system for nation building. Analyzing this reform within an emerging international system of comparability and expertise, with tensions aroundambition, sovereignty, and credibility, the article contributes to debates on the politics of quantification, showing how states use statistics not just for bureaucratic control but to negotiate agency within global hierarchies.”
Extract: “Historical sociology has shown that the history of statistics is inseparable from the history of state power. With the rise of the nation-state as the dominant political model and the parallel proliferation of statistical offices, quantification policies became constitutive of national imaginaries. Desrosières emphasizes that ‘statistics do not merely ‘reflect’ national reality but also ‘establish’ it, in the same way as a constitution, national holidays, anthems, flags, school textbooks, and historical monuments,’ because the ‘nation is not only a politically unified space, but also a common cognitive space, observed and described through consistent interpretative frameworks.’ National statistics indeed do not imply just counting, but rather establishing shared categories and conventions that render such enumeration meaningful. Statistics thus encompass ‘the various forces that ‘hold’ a national community together’, being integral to the state’s symbolic power and authority.
The emergence of national statistical histories from the late nineteenth century reflects this dynamic. Desrosières notes that these narratives presented statistical practices in chronological and institutional terms, often tracing back to the earliest administrative operations, framing the creation of offices, censuses, and statistical compilations as markers of a nation’s longevity and greatness.19Hence, a state’s statistical activity and its long institutional history became arguments for the stability and legitimacy of the nation itself.” (p. 4)