Gül Arıkan Akdağ
Katip Çelebi Üniversitesi
9 Mart 2015 Pazartesi saat 18.00’de.
Sunum İngilizcedir
Ethnicity and Elections in Turkey: Party Politics and the Mobilization of Swing Voters
The move towards a predominant party system thanks to AKP’s successes at the ballot box is one of the most important developments of the Turkish party system and debated issue among political scientists. In addition, the rising Kurdish ethnic demands and support for the pro-Kurdish parties is an important characteristic of the system. The electoral success of AKP among voters of Turkish and Kurdish origin has been mostly evaluated in the literature through the programmatic effectiveness of the party. Yet, a considerable number of studies have found support for the existence of patronage or clientelism as a tool used by Turkish political parties to consolidate and increase support. Unfortunately, a systematic analysis on the effectiveness of such a strategy or the mechanisms through which it is carried has not been conducted in the Turkish context. The aim of the book is to fulfill this gap by analyzing the use and effectiveness of the clientelistic distribution of municipal resources by AKP to consolidate or increase its support among potential swing voters of Turkish and Kurdish origin. By emphasizing the possible impact of clientelistic distribution through the partisan network, the book aims to identify a further variable in explaining the success of AKP at the ballot box for three consecutive elections.