Analyzing Turkey’s electoral geography, this volume evaluates the geographical repercussions of the elections in Turkey since the establishment of multiparty politics in 1950. The book focuses on the last two decades, examining the interaction between electoral behavior and regional dynamics.
Various issues related to the geographical connotations of Turkish electoral politics are qualitatively and quantitatively addressed by scholars with diverse backgrounds in social sciences. The chapters herein examine how Turkey’s electoral geography has been shaped over the years to correspond with a certain aspect of multiparty politics, such as voting behaviors, political parties and party systems, nationalization and regionalization, redistricting, gender issues, identity dynamics, or ideological polarization. This comprehensive work contributes to the theoretical debates in electoral geography in general. Utilizing notions from electoral geography literature, this book develops new concepts through the Turkish case.
Filling an important gap in the literature on Turkish politics, this contemporary analysis will be a key resource to policymakers, students, and scholars interested in political science, Turkey, and the Middle East.
Author(s): Edip Asaf Bekaroğlu; Gülsen Kaya Osmanbaşoğlu
Series: Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics, 106
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2021
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of contents
Figures
Tables
Notes on contributors
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction to Turkey’s electoral geography: An overview since 1950
Seventy years of Turkish electoral geography, 1950–2020
1950–1977: The era of political centrism
1983–2018: The era of centrifugal politics and regionalization
Organization of the book
Notes
References
2 Measuring party nationalization in Turkey: 1950–2018
Introduction
Measuring the nationalization of the party system
Determinants of Party System Nationalization
The Turkish case
Analysis and findings
Nationalization at the party level
Discussion and implications
Notes
References
3 Gerrymandering in Turkish elections since 1950: (Re)setting the rules of the game?
Introduction
The concept and connotations
The Turkish case
Conclusion
Notes
References
4 The dynamics of change and differentiation in voter preferences in the western coastal provinces of Turkey since the 1980s
Introduction
The electoral map of Turkey
An indication of new sociological divisions and political polarizations?
Voter preferences in Turkey’s western coastal provinces from 1983 to 2018
Dynamics of voter preferences in western coastal provinces
Conclusion
Notes
References
5 The regional and national campaign discourse of the PDP and its predecessors in Turkey’s general elections, 2002–2018
Introduction
The Democratic People’s Party’s November 3, 2002 election discourse and message content
The Democratic Society Party’s July 22, 2007 election discourse and message content
The Peace and Democracy Party’s June 12, 2011 election discourse and message content
The People’s Democratic Party’s June 7, 2015 election discourse and message content
The PDP’s November 1, 2015 election discourse and message content
The PDP’s June 24, 2018 election discourse and message content
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
6 “Where are they doing politics?”: Women’s cooperatives as sites of constellations of power
Introduction
Feminist electoral geography
Patron-client relations and their significance in spatialized constructions of politics
Feminist political geography at work: The case of women’s cooperatives in Turkey
Women in the distributional networks of politics and socioeconomics
Cooperatives as “topographies” of women’s empowerment
Women’s presence as the patron and the client
Conclusion
References
7 Election monitoring organizations in view of electoral geography: Regional characteristics of volunteer networks in Turkey
Introduction: “Cats in the substation” and revisiting electoral integrity?
Methodology
Data analysis
Media use and the news preferences of election monitoring networks
Trust in elections, and in news media
Political identities
Characteristics of democratic participation behaviors
Characteristics of volunteering networks and activities
Regional (demographic) characteristics
Participants’ perceptions of political behavior in their social environment
Conclusion
Notes
References
8 Engendering the parliament: A study of women deputies in Turkey, 1935–2018
Introduction
Political representation during the single-party period: Women as a symbol, 1935–1946
More political parties, less representation: 1950–1995
More women, more representation: 1999–2018
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
9 An analysis of Turkish overseas electoral districts: Opportunities and challenges
Introduction
Voting from abroad
Voting from abroad in the Turkish case
Turkey’s diaspora policies and overseas electoral system
Polling stations beyond the border
Discussions on an overseas election district system for Turkey
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
