The Politics Of Turkish Democracy

One of the most significant yet least known periods of modern Turkish history is that of Turkey's second president, İsmet İnönü. Following the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1938, Turkish politicians and intellectuals struggled to redefine Kemalist notions of modernity and democracy, Islam and secularization, the role of the state, and Turkey's place in the world. The Politics of Turkish Democracy examines İnönü's presidency (1938–1950), which developed amid the crises of World War II and the Cold War, global economic and political transformation, and economic and social change within Turkey. John M. VanderLippe analyzes the political discourse of the era and argues that İnönü was a pivotal figure who played the decisive role in Turkey's transition to a multi-party political system.

CHAPTER 1: DEVEWPMENT OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN TURKEY: CRISES, INTERRUPTIONS AND REEQUILIBRATIONS by Ergun Özbudun 1 The Development of Representative and Democratic Government The Ottoman Empire 2 The First Ottoman Parliament 6 The Second Constitutionalist Period (1908-1918) 8 The National Liberation Period (1918-1923) 9 The Consolidation ofthe Republic 11 Transition to MuJtiparty Politics and the Democratic Party Period 14 Turkey' s Second T ry at Democracy (1961-1980) 19 The 1980 Coup and the 1982Constitution 25 Return to Competitive Politics and the1983 Elections 28 An Appraisal 30 Theoretical Analysis 31 Political CuJture 31 Historical Development 35 Class Structure 36 State Structure and Strength 38 Political Structure 41 Political Leadershlp 43 Development Performance 43 International Factors 44 Future Prospects and Policy Implications 45 Policies Promotlng the Growth of Clv/I Soc/ety 45 Policies Promotlng Governmental Stabll/ty and Efticleney 47 Policies Promotlng Economlc Growth and Equity 49 Conclusion 51 Notes CHAPTER 2: STAGES OF POLlTICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE TURKISH REPUBLIC by İlter Turan 59 The Consolidation of the Nation State and the Evalution of an Infrastructure for PoliticalCompetition 61 The Consolidation of the Political System 61 The Transition to Competitive Politics 64 The Democratic Party Period: The Failure of the First Turkish Experiment with Political Democracy 72 The Legacy of the Single Party 73 The Political Consequences of Economic Pol/cies 76 Growing Authoritarianism of the Democratic Party 79 The First Turkish Democraey: An Appraisal 81 The Reconstruction of the Turkish Democracy and Us Second Demise 83 The Parties and the Party System 86 The Governments 88 The Legislature and Legislators 89 The Decline of the Bureaucracy 92 The Second Turkish Democratic Experiment: An Appraisal 94 The Turkish Attempts at Democracy: Some Basic Problem s 95 The Primacy of the Collectivity 96 The Primacy of Polities 97 Political Elitism 100 The Cost of Being out of Power 103 Concluding Remarks 106 Notes 108 CHAPTER 3: POST-1980 PARTI ES AND POLITICS IN TURKEY by Üstün Ergüder 113 Maladies of the Party System During the 1980s 117 V olatility 117 Fragmentation 119 Polarization 122 The 1983 Election 126 Post-1983 Developments: The Dilemmas of the Party System 129 The 1987 Eleetion: "Reinstatement or Reform" Revisited 133 Notes 141 CHAPTER 4 THE GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE POST-1983 MULTI-PAR1Y ERA by Ersin Kalaycıoğlu 147 Introduction 149 The Process of Legislative Institutionalization and the Turkish Grand National Assembly 155 The House Rules and Norms: The Rules of Procedure in the TGNA 157 Procedural Rules Conceming the House Activities ot the Legislators 159 Politicaı Parties in the TGNA 164 Party Discipline in the TGNA 166 Legislative Activities and the Party Groups in the TGNA 169 The Commission Structure and Activity in the TGNA 175 Conclusion 181 Notes 184 CHAPTER 5: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW by Ergun Özbudun 193 The Rule of Law under the Constitution of 1982 196 Human Rights 198 The Independence ot the Judiciary 202 The Constitutional Court and Judicial Review ot the Constitutionality ot Laws 203 Turkeyand the International Protectionot Human Rights 206 Notes 209.

Although Turkey began its transition to democracy as early as the 1950s, it is still far from having reached a level of consolidated democracy with the country's sixty-year history of democratic politics being punctuated by numerous breakdowns and restorations of democracy. In an attempt to examine why consolidation of Turkish democracy has taken so long, this book aims at analyzing various factors including state, political parties, civil society, civil-military relations, socio-economic development, the EU as an international actor and the rise of internal threats (political Islam and separatist Kurdish nationalism) that both hinder and enhance democratic consolidation in Turkey. By highlighting the strengths and shortcomings of the Turkish experience from these perspectives, this book suggests the optimal policy priorities for current and future Turkish governments to establish a consolidated democracy in Turkey. Contributors: Muge Aknur, Canan Aslan-Akman, Filiz Baskan, Gulgun Erdogan-Tosun, Siret Hursoy, Aysegul Komsuoglu, Gul M. Kurtoglu-Eskisar, Yesim Kustepeli, Nazif Mandaci, Ibrahim Saylan, & Ugur Burc Yildiz.

The experience of democracy in Turkey since its introduction in 1950 has been bloody, chequered but persistent. The complex cultural and economic stratification of Turkish society, together with its unique geopolitical status, straddling Eastern and Western zones of influence, in part accounts for the turbulence of Turkey's democratic experience. But, as this important new work argues, Turkish democracy has for too long been treated as a sui generis case, and been cut off from theoretical developments in psephology and comparative sociology. The authors seek to redress this, combining cutting-edge theory with in-depth empirical research to address the key issues in contemporary Turkish politics: the rise of democratic Islamist parties, and the implications of their ascendancy for political stability and democratic governance. They offer important conclusions on voter decision-making in Turkey, and provide a rigorous theoretical framework for identifying trends and anticipating future developments.

Since 1945, Turkey has witnessed no fewer than three breakdowns of the democratic process (1960, 1971 and 1980) and three retransitions to democracy (1961, 1973 and 1983). In this text, the author analyzes 50 years of Turkish politics and provides a theoretical and comparative perspective.

Turkey's Difficult Journey to Democracy provides a thorough examination of the evolution of Turkey's democracy to the present day. After the Second World War, Turkey was considered to have made a highly successful transition from a single party authoritarian state to political competition. Yet, within ten years, Turkey had experienced its first military intervention. During the next forty years, the country vacillated between democratic openings and direct or indirect military interventions. The ascendance in the importance of questions of economic prosperity has helped the deepening and maturing of Turkish democracy, but some impediments persist to produce malfunctions in the operation of a fully democratic system. Through studying the Turkish experience of democratization,Turkey's Difficult Journey to Democracy seeks to provide understanding of the challenges countries that are trying to become democracies encounter in this process. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

Since the founding of the modern Turkish republic in 1923, Turkey's political leaders have been decisive in shaping the development of their country's democratic patterns and processes. Beginning with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Political Leaders and Democracy in Turkey analyzes the origins, political careers, beliefs, and policies of eleven of modern-day Turkey's most influential leaders. The chapters offer a unique perspective into the complex and fascinating world of Turkish political leadership and the transition to, and consolidation of, democracy. This crucial addition to Turkish studies and comparative politics is the first book to undertake a systematic study of the role political leaders have played in shaping the successes, as well as the shortcomings, of Turkey's grand democratic experiment.

An incisive account of Erdoğan’s Turkey – showing how its troubling transformation may be short-lived Since coming to power in 2002 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has overseen a radical transformation of Turkey. Once a pillar of the Western alliance, the country has embarked on a militaristic foreign policy, intervening in regional flashpoints from Nagorno-Karabakh to Libya. And its democracy, sustained by the aspiration to join the European Union, has given way to one-man rule. Dimitar Bechev traces the political trajectory of Erdoğan’s populist regime, from the era of reform and prosperity in the 2000s to the effects of the war in neighboring Syria. In a tale of missed opportunities, Bechev explores how Turkey parted ways with the United States and Europe, embraced Putin’s Russia and other revisionist powers, and replaced a frail democratic regime with an authoritarian one. Despite this, he argues that Turkey’s democratic instincts are resilient, its economic ties to Europe are as strong as ever, and Erdoğan will fail to achieve a fully autocratic regime.