The Role of the Electoral System in Turkish Politics (original) (raw)
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A Reassessment of the Turkish Party System
SİYASAL: Journal of Political Sciences, 2021
Modern political institutions have a long history in Turkey but because of limited competition until 1945 and military interventions in 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997, the party system has not developed consistently. Moreover, the electoral system, particularly the 10% electoral threshold applied after 1980, directly affected the Turkish party system. Having been interrupted by non-democratic forces and attempted to be formed via political engineering, the development of Turkish political parties and party systems has not been linear. In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of literature on the Turkish party system. However, since most studies were based on inadequate empirical data and limited to the 1990s and the 2000s, they have generally focused on the predominant party system and failed to critically review discussions on party systems. This paper analyzes Turkish party systems from 1950 to the present using the quantitative method. Adopting the criteria of the number of relevant parties and their relative strengths, this study applies different indicators such as the effective number of parties and fragmentation. This paper argues that Turkey has experienced four main different forms of party systems since 1950: a two-party system (1950-1960 and 2002), a two and a half party system (1960-1980), a moderate multiparty system with a balance among parties (1991-1999), and a moderate multiparty system with one dominant party (1983-1987, and 2007-2018).
TURKEY’S ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND WHAT REFORMS ARE NEEDED IN TURKEY
Does Turkey’s electoral system require a reform? Why? In fact, this question is the key topic of this paper. The main purpose of this paper is, to found a logical answer to this question and explain Turkey’s electoral systems. The biggest problem is the threshold which is applied in Turkey since 1982. First of all, the paper explains what we understand under election and what are the different types of electoral systems. These are plurality electoral system and proportional representation electoral system. After that, we are focusing on the details of these electoral systems. In order to make the topic more understandable, we are providing a comparative overview of some countries electoral system like USA, Iran and Spain. All of them helped us to understand Turkey’s electoral system. Especially in the conclusion, we emphasized the threshold problem and try to find some solutions.
Transition from parliamentarism to presidentialism and the restructuring of the Turkish party system
Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 2024
The role of institutional factors on party system change has received increasing scholarly attention. This article analyses the emergence of new trends in the structure of party competition in Turkey following the transition from parliamentarism to presidentialism in 2017. The newly-adopted presidential system endowed the president with extraordinary powers and reduced the role of the parliament. Presidential elections assumed central importance in electoral politics; competition was structured by pre-electoral coalitions and party alliances; more than two-thirds of the voters cast their ballots for one of the two main electoral alliances; and there was a trend towards the emergence of a bipolar party system. The analysis presented in this study emphasizes the role of institutional engineering, especially the introduction of presidentialism and changes in electoral laws, as major factors in the restructuring of the Turkish party system.
Turkish Studies, 2011
The commitment to the procedural rules of democracy, particularly to the electoral mechanism, on the part of political leadership is considered necessary for the establishment and survival of democracy. However, the political actors' commitment to the electoral mechanism does not guarantee the well-being of the democratic regime. In newly established democracies, the electoral mechanism itself can also function as a disadvantage to democracy if it is manipulated by the political elite. Based on this assumption, this article analyzes the case of Turkey's Democratic Party (DP, Demokrat Parti) under the leadership of Celal Bayar and Adnan Menderes between 1946 and 60 and demonstrates that political actors can exploit the electoral mechanism by either rescheduling elections or amending the electoral regulations despite their acceptance of it as one of the basic procedural rules of democracy.
Does the Electoral System Foster a Predominant Party System? Evidence from Turkey
This paper discusses the role of the electoral system in making the Justice and Development Party (AKP) dominant. Drawing on Sartori's framework, we first clarify the concept of a predominant party system. Second, we examine the impact of the electoral system on the emergence of a predominant party system in Turkey. Analysing election results, we argue that the electoral system fosters dominance in three ways. First, a combination of electoral formula, national threshold and district threshold leads to over-representation of large parties and underrepresentation of small ones. Second, the fear of a wasted vote due to the high threshold prompts voters to support their second-best option, which concentrates the votes among large parties. Finally, the electoral system increases electoral turnout rates by extending polarization.
Party Politics and Social Cleavages in Turkey
Middle Eastern Studies, 2014
The Electoral System and the Party System 6 Current Debates on Electoral Reform Bibliography Index About the Book v Contents TURKEY PRESENTS AN INTERESTING CASE FOR THE COMparative study of political parties. It is a "second wave" democracy, 1 where multiparty competitive politics has been going on since the mid-1940s, preceded by an authoritarian, single-party system between 1925 and 1946. 2 Since 1946, the Turkish party system has displayed many forms and characteristics. The period between the transition to multiparty politics and the military intervention of 1960 was a textbook example of a two-party system. The retransition to democracy in 1961, after a relatively short period of military rule, led to a fragmentation of the party system, or the proliferation of political parties. Thus, the period between 1961 and the military coup of 1980 can be characterized as a multiparty system displaying certain features of an "extreme" or "polarized" system as described by Giovanni Sartori. 3 With the semicompetitive elections of 1983 (see Chapter 3), which ended the three-year period (1980-1983) of military government of the National Security Council (NSC) regime, the Motherland Party (ANAP) was able to win the absolute majority of the National Assembly seats and to form a single-party government in two consecutive elections (1983 and 1987). Thus, the number of parties represented in parliament declined, partly due to the effects
Extreme Instability in Electoral System Changes: The Turkish Case
Turkish Studies, 2011
A BSTRACT This article examines the extremely volatile character of electoral system changes that took place in Turkey from the end of the Second World War up until the end of the 1990s. Motives that drove these changes were either related to intentions to prevent the undesirable repetition of the past circumstances, or to political actors' short-term goals. Some of these changes seem to have reached their objectives while some others have not. The volatility in electoral institutions' design was also strongly associated with the fluctuations Turkey experienced in terms of democratic consolidation. In this respect, the Turkish case may offer a variety of useful empirical material for the prospective designers of new institutions in a number of former communist countries that are likely to experience further stages of democratic transition/consolidation in the years ahead.
A New Model Proposal for the Parliamentary Elections in Turkey
Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences, 2021
Electoral systems are a set of rules determining how elections be held and seats be distributed in the parliament while elections are to represent citizens in parliament equally in modern democratic societies. Different electoral systems have functioned in Turkey since multiparty politics was introduced in 1946. Currently, the d'Hondt system, suitable for crossparty electoral alliances with a 10% threshold, is in use. The objective of this study is to present an electoral system ensures just representation with regard to parliamentary elections in the Presidential Government System (PGS) while giving an account of the electoral systems and their characteristics implemented until today. In this context, this study first examines the electoral systems and their basic functions, and then the electoral systems applied in Turkey were discussed in chronological order. The "alliance" arrangement, firstly implemented in the general and presidential elections held on 24 June 2018, is another aspect explored in this study. In addition, we assess some aspects of the current Turkish electoral system not compatible with democracy and fair representation from different perspectives. Conclusively, the study using a qualitative method presents a new model proposal to be applied in Turkish Electoral System.