Turkish Democracy Today

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.

"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."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Democratic government is facing unprecedented challenges at a global scale. Yet, Turkey's descent into conflict, crisis and autocracy is exceptional. Only a few years ago, the country was praised as a successful Muslim-majority democracy and a promising example of sustainable growth. In Turkey’s Exit from Democracy, the contributors argue that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party government have now effectively abandoned the realm of democratic politics by attempting regime change with the aim to install a hyper-presidentialist system. Examining how this power grab comes at the tail end of more than a decade of seemingly democratic politics, the contributors also explore the mechanisms of de-democratization through two distinctive, but interrelated angles: A set of comparative analyses explores illiberal forms of governance in Turkey, Russia, Southeast Europe and Latin America. In-depth studies analyse how Turkey's society has been reshaped in the image of a patriarchal habitus and how consent has been fabricated through religious, educational, ethnic and civil society policies. Despite this comprehensive authoritarian shift, the result is not authoritarian consolidation, but a deeply divided and contested polity. Analysing an early example of democratic decline and authoritarian politics, this volume is relevant well beyond the confines of regional studies. Turkey exemplifies the larger forces of de-democratization at play globally. Turkey’s Exit from Democracy provides the reader with generalizable insights into these transformative processes. These chapters were originally published as a special issue in Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.

Over the last decade, the Middle East has been in a state of extraordinary, at times violent, flux. Once the region’s biggest empire, then its "model" democracy, and always the bridge between the region and the West, Turkey has played a unique role in these movements—sometimes as inspirational model, sometimes as actor, and sometimes as observer. In this collection of essays, Ali Bulaç eruditely addresses issues as diverse as Turkey’s uphill battle for democracy, its relationship with global powers, the Kurdish issue, the AKP-Hizmet row, and the Erdoğan administration’s escalating authoritarianism and its horrific attacks on free speech and the rule of law in an attempt to cover up massive government corruption. Bulaç leverages a wealth of knowledge to dissect Turkey’s vital role in the ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Israel, and he uses his position as a government outsider to examine Turkey’s internal dynamics from a fresh perspective. With unprecedented insight, searing commentary, and a profound intellect, these essays by Ali Bulaç form an ideal introduction to the socio-cultural and political canvas of both Turkey and the Middle East.

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.

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.

While Turkey has made major strides in democratic reforms in the late 1990s and early 2000s, progress has, in many ways, stalled. Turkey remains "democratic" in the sense that attaining political power depends upon winning votes, but in recent years its leadership has taken a majoritarian view of democracy and the country has faced problems on issues such as rule of law, freedom of speech, and increased polarization. This book explores the understanding and practice of democracy in Turkey since the early 2000s, analyzing its evolution in light of the parliamentary elections held in 2015. Adopting a more holistic approach in line with the writing of Wolfgang Merkel, it recognizes that a successful, consolidated democracy has various micro and macro-level foundations. The former includes factors such as political values, tolerance, identity, and civil society, while the latter includes political economy, party competition, and institutional development. This volume rejects purely descriptive assessments and instead employs theoretical perspectives to analyze a dynamic political environment. It brings together a range of noted specialists on Turkish politics and society, who employ different methodological approaches and frameworks to offer a distinct scholarly work on democratization in Turkey. A thorough analysis of the problems of democratic consolidation, alongside an awareness of the theoretical and methodological debates in the discipline, make this book essential reading for students, scholars and policymakers interested in Turkish politics, as well as democratization and democratic transitions more generally.