Turkey’s Electoral Geography: Trends, Behaviors, and Identities

Description

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. 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