The Paradox of Modernity in Turkey

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siret Hürsoy
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Religious Orientation ◽  
Ethnic Origin ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Strong State ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Military

The central argument of this article is that the strong state-centred tradition of Turkey has recently gone out of fashion. The breakdown of authoritarianism and state-centred approach and moving into a successful democratic consolidation and society-centred approach in Turkey requires choices to be made and alliances to be formed among intellectual-bureaucratic elite, the military, political parties, trade unions, other interest groups and various types of societal organisations. One of the most important difficulties for consolidating democracy in Turkey has been the complexity of creating stable, viable, accountable, responsive, predictable, representative, transparent, efficient and problem-solving oriented legitimate institutions where all citizens, regardless of ethnic origin or religious orientation, have a voice and enabling representation in such bureaucratic organs that altogether make-up the institution of state. This article will assert that the forces of democratic transition from a state-centred approach to a society-centred approach in Turkey are based on resolving the two main potentially difficult problems that are related with constant questioning of the legitimacy and democratic consolidation of the state apparatus: ethnic and religious paradoxes.

scholarly journals The Mother's Milk of Politics: Political Contributions to Federal Parties in Canada, 1974–1984

1986 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 795-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. T. Stanbury
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Federal Legislation ◽  
Political Contributions ◽  
Federal Level ◽  
Mother's Milk ◽  
Campaign Expenditures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Different Sources

AbstractAbstract. This study provides data to answer a number of important questions concerning the financing of the three main political parties at the federal level between 1974 and 1984. It analyzes both the regulated campaign expenditures by parties and candidates and the unregulated party expenditures outside official campaign periods. The main focus is on the importance of different sources of contributions to each party: individuals, corporations, trade unions, and interest groups. New details are provided on large contributions by individuals and corporations, and on the contributions of the largest 500 nonfinancial enterprises in Canada. Finally, the study notes that despite new federal legislation concerning political contributions and expenditures in 1974 the relationship between contributions and influence remains shrouded in secrecy.

8. Freedom of assembly and association

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Rainey
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Margin Of Appreciation ◽  
Civil And Political Rights

Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter focuses on freedom of assembly and association, which is dealt with together in Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) but separately in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It looks at the various forms of an assembly, and considers forms of association such as political parties, other interest groups, and trade unions, and how a state must justify any restriction on Article 11(1) given the extremely narrow margin of appreciation when it comes to political parties. The chapter also discusses public order and protest that has led to litigation in England and Wales to determine what is meant by imminent breach of the peace, the limits on processions and assembly, and the proportionality of state measures under Article 11 (with Articles 10 and 5).

scholarly journals Images of Suspicion: Surveillance Photos in the Brazilian Political Police Archives

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-82
Author(s):  
Mauricio Lissovsky ◽  
Teresa Bastos
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Women's Movements ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Student Movements ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Surveillance Camera ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Military

Between its foundation under President Vargas in the 1930s until its closure with the end of the Military Dictatorship in 1983, the Brazilian Political Police Archive accumulated more than one hundred thousand photographs, These pictures, now held in the collections of the State Archive of Rio de Janeiro are almost entirely unknown. Despite the big differences between the various governments and regimes of its fifty years of existence, the common objects of surveillance by the police remained remarkably constant: trade unions, political parties, cultural associations, women’s movements, student movements, anarchists, communists and terrorists. Foreigners, including diplomats, whose activities raised suspicion of espionage or subversion were also kept a watchful eye on. The contemporary surveillance camera has its signature in the wide-angle plongée machinic abstract style, but in the files of the political police, the watchers are always finding ways to leave traces of their own performances as spies. Agamben’s ideas help us to create, in this exploratory essay, a dialogic link between the booking photographs taken of the political prisoners and the spy photographs of the usual suspects. In this sense, these images of suspicion testify not only to the “facts” or “feats” of those men and women under observation. In the trail left by these old photographs we can still hear the steps that once choreographed the ballet of surveillance, a strange pas-de-deux that found, in the interstice of the photographic act, a place for authorship.

POLITICS-LAW CONVERGENCE OR DIVERGENCE? 'SMALL' POLITICAL PARTIES, REALPOLITIKAND SOUTH AFRICA'S 20 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kealeboga J Maphunye
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Secondary Research ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
African Charter

This article examines South Africa's 20-year democracy by contextualising the roles of the 'small' political parties that contested South Africa's 2014 elections. Through the  prism  of South  Africa's  Constitution,  electoral legislation  and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, it examines these parties' roles in South Africa's democratisation; their influence,  if any, in parliament, and whether they play any role in South Africa's continental or international engagements. Based on a review of the extant literature, official documents,  legislation, media, secondary research, reports and the results of South Africa's elections, the article relies on game theory, rational choice theory and theories of democracy and democratic consolidation to examine 'small' political parties' roles in the country's political and legal systems. It concludes that the roles of 'small' parties in governance and democracy deserve greater recognition than is currently the case, but acknowledges the extreme difficulty experienced by the 'small'  parties in playing a significant role in democratic consolidation, given their formidable opponent in a one-party dominant system.

The Acceptance of Party Unity in Parliamentary Democracies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Willumsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Survey Questions ◽  
Ideal Policy ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Policy Incentives

The central argument of this book is that voting unity in European legislatures is not primarily the result of the ‘disciplining’ power of the leadership of parliamentary parties, but rather the result of a combination of ideological homogeneity through self-selection into political parties and the calculations of individual legislators about their own long-term benefits. Despite the central role of policy preferences in the subsequent behaviour of legislators, preferences at the level of the individual legislator have been almost entirely neglected in the study of parliaments and legislative behaviour. The book measures these using an until now under-utilized resource: parliamentary surveys. Building on these, the book develops measures of policy incentives of legislators to dissent from their parliamentary parties, and show that preference similarity amongst legislators explains a very substantial proportion of party unity, yet alone cannot explain all of it. Analysing the attitudes of legislators to the demands of party unity, and what drives these attitudes, the book argues that what explains the observed unity (beyond what preference similarity would explain) is the conscious acceptance by MPs that the long-term benefits of belonging to a united party (such as increased influence on legislation, lower transaction costs, and better chances of gaining office) outweigh the short-terms benefits of always voting for their ideal policy outcome. The book buttresses this argument through the analysis of both open-ended survey questions as well as survey questions on the costs and benefits of belonging to a political party in a legislature.

Political Economy and Partisan Government

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaad Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Class Analysis ◽  
Economic Support ◽  
Business Support

This is one of key chapters of the book presenting the argument of partisan government. This chapter interrogates the subnational variation in labour reforms through partisan governments and suggests regional political economy as critical to shaping orientation of partisan governments. It critically analyses the existing party-based interpretation of reform and shows that it is the instrumental interest assuaging the interests of support base that explain government orientation to labour reform. Through a caste/class analysis of political parties, the chapter highlights that significant business support and socio-economically homogeneous dominant support base characterize states with greater market flexibility. In contrast, when the dominant support base of party is heterogeneous and wide, the pace of reform is significantly muted. Partisan configuration—the socio-economic support base of government—determines not only the orientation of policies but also the interrelation between government and various interest groups in society.

The Persuasion Effects of Political Endorsements

2019 ◽  
pp. 223-242
Author(s):  
Cheryl Boudreau
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Observational Study ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Controlled Environment ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Political Persuasion

Political endorsements (recommendations about which candidate or policy to support) are ubiquitous in political contexts. They may come from political parties, interest groups, politicians, or even celebrities. Can uninformed citizens identify endorsers who share their interests and use their recommendations as substitutes for detailed political information? This chapter surveys the literature on the persuasion effects of political endorsements. It first provides an overview of theoretical models that examine how political endorsements affect citizens’ choices. Then, it describes a seminal observational study of how endorsements affect political persuasion. It next discusses experimental research that assesses the effects of endorsements. It emphasizes that experiments are particularly useful for identifying when political endorsements will persuade citizens because they allow scholars to manipulate the conditions that theoretical models identify in a carefully controlled environment. It concludes by discussing open questions about the effects of political endorsements and describing how ongoing research addresses them.

Role Model or Role Expansion? Popular Perceptions of the Military in Tunisia

2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110014
Author(s):  
Holger Albrecht ◽  
Michael Bufano ◽  
Kevin Koehler
Keyword(s):  
Role Model ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Emerging Democracies ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Role Expansion ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

This article introduces a theory on military role expansion in emerging democracies and poses a broad question: who wants the military to adopt which role in society and politics? Drawing on an original, nationally representative survey conducted in Tunisia, the article explores people’s preferences for the military to remain a security provider or serve in government and contribute to policing protests. Findings reveal that public support for military role expansion is substantial and varies across political cleavages. We test hypotheses to account for cleavages driven by the country’s authoritarian past versus partisan divides during Tunisia’s transition to democracy. Findings indicate that popular support for military role expansion is driven by anti-system sentiments prevalent in contemporary Tunisian politics: while voters prefer the military as a role model for security provision, non-voters support its enhanced role in politics. These observations have ample implications for the research programs on civil–military relations and the dynamics of democratic consolidation. Tunisia’s experience warrants greater attention to anti-system attitudes caused by people’s disillusionment with democratic procedures. In turn, authoritarian legacies do not appear to play a prominent role during such challenging transitions toward democratic consolidation.

Interest Groups and Elections

2019 ◽  
pp. 339-357
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Organizational Forms ◽  
Super Pacs ◽  
New Organizational Forms ◽  
Winner Take All ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Take All

The relationships between interest groups, political parties, and elections have always been dynamic, but in recent years change has accelerated in ways that have favored some interests over others. This chapter considers these developments as the result of a variety of factors, the most critical of which are the growth of polarization, a new legal landscape for campaign finance, and new organizational forms. The chapter goes on to suggest, that as bipartisanship has ebbed, elections have become winner-take-all affairs and interest groups are pushed to choose sides. The chapter further suggests that the rise of super PACs is especially notable as wealthy individuals have become increasingly important, single sources of campaign money, supplanting in part traditional interest groups, especially conventional PACs. It concludes that even as sums spent by super PACs and other interest groups have skyrocketed, the impact of their direct spending on persuading voters remains uncertain.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document