アブデュル・ハミド2世の専制政治構造

抄録

This paper intends to investigate the power structure of the late Ottoman Empire by focusing on the autocracy of Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876-1909), which is characterized by a dual ruling mechanism; that is, while building up a strong ruling mechanism by strengthening the Sultan's Palace treasury (Hazine-i Hassa) from State Treasury appropriations, his autocratic regime also preserved a ruling system regulated under the First Constitution. Sultan Abdulhamid II is known for his autocratic regime (istibdad). His autocracy, which terminated the short-lived First Constitutional regime that began with the enactment of a Western-influenced Constitution, continued from 1878 to 1908, a period of confrontation with the imperialistic European Powers. However, the Sultan did not go as far as to negate completely the First Constitutional system. Indeed this dual nature of the regime enabled the ruling body to respond to the Young Turks Revolution of 1908, which brought forth the Second Constitutional regime, to keep the government internal disorder to minimum, and to transfer smoothly to a new system. Also the Committee of Union and Progress, though it was a revolutionary force under the Second Constitutional regime, utilized this dual ruling structure to strengthen its insufficient political power and exert influence on the government. The autocracy of Abdulhamid II differs substantively from his predecessor, Sultan Abdulaziz (1861-76). The regime of Abdulaziz rested upon the traditional ruling system of the Ottoman Empire which excluded factors limiting the Sultan's power---for example, legal enforcement under the Constitution. In this traditional autocracy the Grand Vezir controlled the whole administration and the military on behalf of the Sultan; in other words, it was the autocracy which was based on the absolutism of the Ottoman Sultanate. On the other hand, Abdulhamid II, who recognized the fact that the decline of the Ottoman Empire resulted mainly from its unlawful and chaotic autocratic government, agreed personally with the enactment of the Constitution and contributed to the establishment of the First Constitutional regime. In this sense, Abdulhamid II by no means intended to negate totally the Constitutional system. It is true that during his autocratic period Abdulhamid II suspended the Constitution, but he kept declaring that the Constitution was only temporarily suspended and was not to be abolished. Under the Constitutional system, however, various local disputes, especially over economic problems, were brought into the central Parliament which functioned as the representative voice of the people. The bankrupcy of the national purse caused by the accumulated foreign debt pressured local economies and brought about increasing local dissatisfaction. On the strength of this discontent, the Parliament strongly attacked the Sultan's economic policy. Abdulhamid II, though he managed to get by the First Session of the Parliament, had to close the Second Session which assembled in 1878, in order to weaken the local power groups lodged there. This shows how influential the local power groups actually were. Even though the Parliament as the foundation of the Constitutional regime was closed, the nominal continuation of law and order in the name of the Constitution was possible since other state ruling mechanisms were left untouched. Yet, the closing of the Parliament was undoubtedly the negation of the spirit of the Constituion, and many citizen rights, which had been guaranteed by the Constituiton, became bereft of substance. After that, Sultan Abdulhamid II founded an office to supervise the administraion in the Parliament and also to act as the supreme state ruling structure so that the policy of the Sultan would be enacted at once. These positions were filled with Palace officers who belonged to the Sultan's private entourage. The Mabeyn (Sultan's

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